Morgana's Quest
by GrayShoedWonder
Summary: Sequel to Morgana's Revenge! - Five years after Morgana left Camelot, her nightmarish visions begin again. Will she be able to prevent the tragic visions she sees, or will she cause them? Better summary inside...
1. Prologue

**So here it is – the sequel to "Morgana's Revenge"! If y'all had any idea how much trouble this story has been, you might better understand how much of a miracle it is that it's up this soon after the end of the last one. Okay, not SO soon, but still. I think I did a pretty good job. I hope you enjoy it! It's full of exciting things and... I guess I shouldn't tell you that.**

**Plot: It has been five years since Morgana left Camelot. She has heard nothing of the city or its residents in the meantime, and has instead focused on raising her children and creating a sanctuary for those who have magic. Then her nightmarish visions begin again, and in the search for answers, she uncovers well hidden secrets from Merlin's past. Will she be able to prevent the tragic future she sees – or will she cause it?**

PROLOGUE

Morgana was dreaming again of the fall of Camelot. The white city was being destroyed, but she couldn't see what was doing it. The walls of the castle were crumbling and collapsing, their stones littering the poorer parts of the city, where fire had taken hold in the wood and thatch roofs. Her sight zoomed in dizzyingly and she could see Arthur hurrying through the castle's passages, his sword drawn as though looking for an enemy to fight. Knights dashed by, but he was singular in purpose.

In her bed, Morgana shifted and whimpered. For all that she had never forgiven the prince, she did not want to see him die. He was not Uther and had been unable to stand up to his father. Uther's hold over him was great, but not his fault. Arthur was looking for someone, calling a name. She strained her ears to hear him over the thunderous noises of the war raging outside. He was calling a name, desperately, like he would die if he couldn't find who he was looking for.

The vision changed again, to a tall black castle that Morgana had never seen before. The room she focused on was large, with lofty vaulted ceilings. All light to the room was provided by several narrow windows set high into the walls. Books were stacked on the floor around the edges of the room and sat in piles around a desk in the center of the room. More books were scattered atop the wood, interspersed with piles of papers. One book lay open in the center of the desk, a man bent over it. He had shoulder-length dark hair that swung around his face like a curtain, but Morgana felt that she knew him from somewhere. The silence was eerie after the loud crashes of the collapsing city, but it was broken before she had much time to enjoy it. The man began to chant, and Morgana realized that he was doing magic. As he spoke, his hands started to shine and shimmer as a nimbus of light grew and danced around his long slender fingers. He finished his spell and raised his hands, lifting his face at the same time.

For the first time, she got a good look at his face. She jerked awake in shock, calling out his name. "Merlin!"

**Super short, I know, but the next chapter will be up REALLY soon (tomorrow), so fret not my dear readers. Reviews are appreciated greatly.**


	2. Chapter 1: The Children

**I usually don't do disclaimers, mostly cuz I think they're pointless. I mean, if I'm posting this on a fanfiction website, then I clearly don't own it, right? Anyway, if you don't recognize it from the show, it's mine.**

**Enjoy!

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CHAPTER ONE: THE CHILDREN

Daylight began to filter through the curtains, but Morgana barely noticed. It had been three days since she'd seen the vision of Merlin, and had spent every free hour she had working every scrying spell she could imagine in an attempt to find him. She bent over the bowl of water she'd placed on her table, reaching for her magic. "_Himlo isy bavo Merlin shd!_" The water rippled and grew very agitated before settling down and turning to black.

She sighed and put her head in her hands. The spell had failed, again. It was like Merlin was really dead, like he didn't exist anymore. She couldn't understand why her visions had shown him to her. They never lied to her, they never failed to come true, at least in part. She growled in frustration. The vision was not an old memory or a figment of her imagination, that much she knew, because Merlin had looked to be older than he had been when she'd last seen him and a scar had curled across his cheek. The visions were stronger than either of those. They felt real.

Someone knocked on the door and it burst open without any other preamble. Two five-year-old children bounced into the room as Morgana raised her head. "Cade! Emlyn!" she exclaimed, smiling at them and forcing her black mood away.

"Mama!" they cried, running to her. She picked them up and put them on her lap, smiling brightly at her children. The boy had straight dark black hair and a round face, like his mother's. It was his eyes that gave away his father, burning darkly blue in the morning sun. The girl was also dark haired, but had her mother's curls and deep gray-green eyes. She was built as Merlin had been; long and gangly despite her mere five years, with almost comically large ears.

"Freya said we get to go to the lake today!" Cade exclaimed happily. Their nurse appeared in the doorway.

"Cade! Emlyn! There you are." The woman had come to Prycrest not long after Morgana had taken up residence there. She had been cast away by the Druids for a curse that was not her fault, but it had taken Morgana about a week to devise a way of breaking the spell, even with her limited knowledge. That just showed that it was shoddy spellwork to begin with anyway.

"It's okay," Morgana said, making a snap decision. "I'm going to go on a trip for a little bit, Freya. Will you be okay here with the children?"

"No problem, my lady," the servant grinned. She was more like Morgana's friend than a nanny or maid, though in actuality that was what she was paid to do. Almost like Gwen had been, so long ago in Camelot. "Where are you going?"

"I have some business to attend to outside the city. I'm really not sure of how long it will take, but I hope it won't be that long."

"When are you leaving?" Freya sat down across the table, but before Morgana could answer, Emlyn jumped in.

"Why are you going, Mama? Can you come to the lake with us today?"

"I won't be gone for long, sweetheart," she said, kissing the back of her head. "And I can come down to the lake with you, if Freya doesn't mind me joining you?"

The other woman grinned and brushed her hair out of her face. "That sounds excellent, my lady."

"Come, children," Freya finally said, standing up. "It's time for your lessons." They hopped off Morgana's lap, turning around to give her a hug. She kissed their cheeks and they dashed back to Freya's side, each taking a hand.

"I'm going to leave tomorrow morning. I'll meet you in the schoolroom at an hour past noon. I can cancel their magic lessons for today. Children need time to play too," she said, smiling indulgently at the twins.

"Of course," Freya grinned, leading the twins from the room.

For the rest of the morning, Morgana prepared herself to travel to Camelot. She told the cooks that she would need food for a two-day journey, packed some clothes and decided which spells she would need to move undetected through the city. By the time she was supposed to join Freya in taking her children down to the lake she'd sorted almost everything out. All that was left was to tell the magic tutor that they would not be attending their lessons that day, which took about five minutes. Their classroom empty save the teacher, and he seemed glad for the day off.

She made her way through the castle to the classroom, where the castle children were tutored every day. Their lessons generally ran until past noon, and they were just being released when she arrived.

"Mama!" Emlyn cried, abandoning her quill and running to give her a hug.

"Hello darling. Why don't you finish picking up so we can head on out to the lake?" The little girl dashed to the desk and shoved everything inside of it before returning to Morgana and tugging on her hand. Her son took the other, pulling insistently. "Okay, okay!" she laughed as she allowed them to lead her from the castle to the stables where Freya was waiting with two saddled horses.

She lifted Cade onto one then swung up herself. Freya did the same with Emlyn, and they clattered through the city and out the large black gates. The lake was a three minute ride usually, but at the pace they were traveling it took less than two.

When they reached the lake, the two women helped the children off their horses and set them loose. Within ten minutes they were both covered in sand. Freya and Morgana sat further up the beach, keeping a watchful eye on the twins. "How have you been sleeping?" the nanny asked, looking at Morgana's pale and drawn face. She knew of Morgana's nightmares, and had helped her through several of them.

"I'm Seeing things again," she said frustratedly. "I need to go back to Camelot."

"If you don't mind my asking, why do you care? Camelot has no hand in our lives here."

"I'm not sure. I spent a large part of my life there, and Merlin's grave is there. A part of me will live there forever. I also fear that the city may be in trouble."

"How does that affect us? You have heard nothing of Camelot for years."

"If Camelot falls, all of Albion will collapse into disarray. A war is exactly what we cannot afford now, Freya, not now that people are really beginning to trust us not to kill them for practicing magic. Uther's reign was terrible and its mark will not fade quickly."

"I have heard rumors, my lady, of how he died, but they always seem far-fetched." Morgana said nothing, but Freya wasn't deterred. "You must have been at the court when it happened," she pressed. "Do you know how he died?"

Morgana thought back to that Day, when she'd killed Uther. The feel of the magically poisoned knife sliding into his flesh, the rage of that night, the unutterable pain of having her guardian kill her lover, Arthur's betrayed blue eyes as he tried desperately to save his doomed father. "No," she said finally. "I left the day before and have heard nothing since." She still didn't understand why that was. Arthur must have had hundreds of knights at his disposal once he'd become king, and surely would want revenge on her for murdering his father. And yet nothing had happened to her.

"That's too bad," Freya said, interrupting Morgana's thoughts. "This will be the first time you've gone back, then?"

"Yes," she answered, and was mercifully spared more questions by the approach of her children.

"Mama, look at what Mr Gordon taught me to do!" Emlyn said excitedly. Morgana leaned forward to show her interest and the little girl continued. "_Koh girt badare!_"the little girl said, holding one hand out. A small ball of light formed, hovering, just above the center of her palm.

"Good job," Morgana praised enthusiastically, and her daughter smiled.

"Come on Freya, help me find more sticks!" Emlyn tugged her nanny to her feet and they set off into the woods that bordered the edge of the lake.

They returned to Prycrest as the sun was sinking into the earth. Dinner was loud, but the children had had a very exciting day and went to sleep soon after, leaving Morgana time to finish preparing, both her gear and her mind. Even thinking of Camelot was emotionally taxing; she couldn't imagine going there again. Yet that was what she was going to do.

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**I thought this was a little slow, but it begins to clip along pretty well after this. Mostly I wanted to introduce Cade and Emlyn. Also the chapters get longer after this...**


	3. Chapter 2: Return to Camelot

CHAPTER TWO: RETURN TO CAMELOT

The next day Morgana saddled her horse and left Prycrest before the city had woken up. As she rode down the nearly silent streets she thought about how similar Camelot was to her city. Both were centered around a castle, with a town spread out around it. However, where Camelot's palace was white, hers was gray stone, and square where Camelot was circular. The town was also constructed mainly of wood, while the wall that was being built around the entire thing was of dull red granite. The entire city was steeped in magic, from the magicians, witches, and sorcerers who lived there to the spells that were being woven into the wall as it was built.

She didn't stop riding all day; she wanted to get as close to Camelot as possible before night fell. Morgana knew she was a powerful witch, but she didn't want to be forced to deal with any bandits who thought to take advantage of her, despite the sword that hung reassuringly by her side.

Night came, as it always would, and she stopped her horse so she could eat and rest. If she rode hard the next day she would reach Camelot around noon. With a muttered word she lit a fire and pulled her food from her saddlebag, tying her horse to a tree.

As she ate, she was reminded of how much she hated traveling over long distances without magic. But on this trip she needed to appear as a real traveler, so that meant that she would practice no obvious magic, and that included having a horse and looking travel worn. It meant no magical transportation into or out of the city. Also she needed to take time to adjust to returning. Camelot was presumably under Arthur's rule now, so she didn't expect the measures to be as harsh as they had been under Uther, but nothing was set in stone. She still had misgivings though, especially due to the way Uther had died.

Before she settled down to sleep, she set up protective wards around her campsite. They would hide her, the fire, and the horse from prying eyes and if anyone came near, she would be woken. She laid down and put her head on her rolled up cloak, then slipped off into her sleep. She dreamed

_Arthur ran through the castle in Camelot, calling for someone. The city was collapsing around him, stones tumbling from the towers into the courtyard. Screams echoed from the city. The vision shifted. Gwen lay in a wide bed, wearing a simple white dress. She was very pregnant, her stomach swollen with child. The coverings were sumptuous, and the room seemed to be part of the palace. White rock fell like snow past the ceiling, but before she could get a better look, her Sight shifted again, to the man in the room. This time, he was bent over a large book, his hair pulled back into a loose ponytail at the base of his skull. Morgana seemed frozen. Merlin looked up at her and seemed to see her, as though she was actually before him._

Morgana jerked awake. The sun had not yet come over the horizon, but the sky was lightening in the east. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. The fire had burned out in the night; all that was left was a small pile of charred sticks. She stuffed food into her mouth, not really caring what it was, and resaddled the horse, her desire to reach Camelot growing, especially with the dream of the night before. She needed to talk to Gaius. He, if anyone, would know what had happened.

By noon she was approaching the city, and turned off the path. Her plan was to disguise herself magically and sneak into the palace. She tied the horse to a tree and set to work with her magic. Instead of changing her appearance entirely, she cast a spell that would make people not notice that she was there. Their eyes would slide off of her like they'd seen her every day, like she was of no consequence. She knew that using magic was dangerous, but figured that using magic to make people not notice her was less obvious than moving between places instantly. That said, she would use magic if threatened, no questions asked.

Finished, she began the walk into the city. As she drew closer to the gates, she was passed by more and more people. Some were clearly knights while others drew carts of goods to sell at the city markets. She got past the gates no problem and worked her way through the lower city to the entrance of the palace. Everything was exactly as she remembered it. Her eyes scanned the windows overlooking the courtyard and located the one that used to be hers. She remembered sitting there during the weeks after Merlin's execution.

Wrenching herself from the past, she made her way around the edge of the courtyard to the winding staircase that led to Gaius's chambers. He had previously supported her and had loved Merlin like a son, so she had no doubt that he would help her now. If not, she could always leave. Leaving by magical means meant that she might never be able to return though, so it was sort of a last resort type option.

Morgana pushed the already cracked door open and stepped inside. Gaius was standing at his table, facing a young girl no older than fourteen. "And take this to the queen. She's been complaining of back pains and headaches." The girl nodded and took the bottle he was holding, nodding politely to Morgana on her way out the door.

"Gaius," Morgana said, tasting the word. It had been many years since she'd said it. As she spoke, she let her magical shield drop.

"Yes?" he said, turning around. "Can I help you?"

She slid her hood off and stepped out of the shadows. "Hello, Gaius."

"Morgana!" he gasped, his eyes traveling her body. "My goodness child, it's been years!"

"Yes it has," she said, getting her first good look at him. He looked ages older, his face more lined, his back more stooped. His gnarled hands twisted together, fingers tangling in each other. His hair was cut shorter than before. "How have you been doing? And who was that?" She gestured after the girl.

"I'm fine. That was Charlotte; she's my new assistant." He stepped forward and then grabbed Morgana in a hug. "I'm so relieved that you've returned!" he said. "I want to know all about your child. We get almost no news from that corner of the kingdom."

"Thank you Gaius, but that is a conversation for a different time. What has happened here since I left? I have had no news."

"Where to begin?" He said, sighing, moving to the table and sitting down. He motioned her to take a seat opposite him and she did so, settling down on the other side of the table.

"You could begin at the beginning," she offered. "What happened right after I left." She intentionally didn't mention Uther's death, but it was surely at the forefront of Gaius's mind.

"Okay," he began, taking a deep breath. There was nowhere but there for him to start. "You did an excellent job magically poisoning that dagger; there was no cure that I could find. And that's saying something, because I know an awful lot about magic." Before he could go on though, the door of his chambers banged open and Arthur strode into the room.

"Gaius!" he shouted. "I need you!"

Morgana stood up, but hadn't the time to recast her obscuring spell before Arthur's eyes found her face and his mouth dropped open.

**Once again, short, but the chapters do get longer I promise. Reviews are always appreciated!**


	4. Chapter 3: The Queen

CHAPTER THREE: THE QUEEN

Morgana froze under Arthur's gaze. He opened his mouth to say something, but never got the chance. With a muttered word, the witch disappeared. No time for hellos and talks or fancy embellishments on her exit like the ones she'd used the last time she'd seen Arthur. She didn't know how the king would react to her, especially after what she did to his father. But she didn't go far. She hadn't forgotten her original mission in returning to Camelot, and so reappeared silently in the room that had once been Merlin's. Morgana waved her hand and made it so she could see and hear through the door, though nobody on the other side would notice any difference.

"Where did she go?" Arthur shouted, looking around frantically. "Morgana!"

"Sorry sire, but she's probably long gone, back to wherever she came from," Gaius said soothingly. "Perhaps she will return soon." Morgana couldn't tell if he was lying – he had always been good at deceiving people. She knew from personal experience.

"How long has she been in Camelot?" the king asked, looming over the physician.

"I don't know, sire. She'd been here for about a minute before you came. Why did you come, by the way? What do you need? Is it the queen?"

"No," he said, returning to his original thought. "No, Sir Bryce was wounded during training. He tripped over a stray shield and hit his head on a rock. He's not conscious anymore. I didn't want to move him."

"Good idea, sire. Is he still in the practice yard then?" Gaius was moving surprisingly quickly for such an old man.

"Yes," Arthur said, and Gaius pushed past him. He cast one last look around Gaius's chambers, as though Morgana suddenly pop out from behind a table, then followed the old man out the door.

In the opposite room, Morgana released her magic and the door became opaque again. It was puzzling, how Arthur had reacted to her return. She had expected him to pull out his sword, threaten her life, and when she'd disappeared, she'd certainly expected him to shout that he would order the guards to search the city until they found her. What she had not expected was his seeming anxiety to speak to her, the anxiety conveyed by his tone and lack of anger. He seemed to have missed her and appeared almost desperate to speak to her.

She pushed the door open and moved back into the physician's chambers. They were as messy and disorganized as she had remembered them to be, the tables strewn with books, papers, and glass decanters half full of unidentifiable and brightly colored liquids. She didn't know how long Gaius would be away, but the wounded knight would certainly be brought back to this room before the day was out. She decided to visit the castle and see how it had changed in the five years since she'd been gone, lest anyone return and catch her hiding away.

Recasting her spell and raising her hood, she slipped back out the door, closing it softly behind herself and moving out into the larger castle. The halls were filled with maids and servants, carrying piles of folded linens, baskets of clothes, messages, and all manner of other things. It was just as it had been under Uther's rule

Pushing thoughts of the past king from her head, she thought to wonder where her feet were taking her. They were retracing the beaten path back to her chambers. Shrugging, Morgana decided that she did want to know what had happened to her rooms since she'd left, and allowed her feet to lead her where they would.

She reached the spiral stairs that led up to her wing of the palace. Admittedly, she had not occupied the entire wing, but she was the only one who lived there most of the time. It was only when they had a great number of guests that the king had put people in the rooms by hers, or if she had invited someone to the castle personally. It allowed for better privacy, which she had greatly appreciated, especially after she started having nightmares and waking up screaming and shaking. As she put out a hand for the door to her room, she was interrupted by someone.

"You're not going in there, are you?" A female voice echoed down the hall.

Morgana withdrew her hand below her cloak and turned to face the girl, hoping that the blue fabric would hide her face. She didn't know what to make of the fact that her spell had not worked on the girl. "Why wouldn't I?" she asked instead, hoping to take the focus off of her. It didn't work.

"How can you not know the story?" she laughed. "Everyone knows it!"

"I'm afraid that I'm pretty new around here, and it's been a little bit since news has been able to reach me. Care to enlighten me?"

The girl put down her basket of dirty laundry and settled back against the wall of the narrow passage like she was preparing to stay there for a while. "Well, you must know of the death of King Uther," she began, and when Morgana nodded, she continued. "Nobody really knows how he died. The king was supposedly there, but everyone else either doesn't know or won't talk. Anyway, the story starts before then. So Uther, when he was younger, took in the daughter of one of his best friends after the knight died. He raised her like his own daughter, but when she fell in love with a servant, and the king had him killed. The girl wasn't seen for weeks, and when the king went to see her in her chambers, he found her dead. She had died of grief for her lost lover, and the king died of regret for his rash actions towards her and her desires."

Morgana was agape. She didn't understand how such a ludicrous story had managed to make its way into castle lore in the short span of five years. Admittedly the first part was true, but Arthur must have had something to do with the last bit, about the king. She was still puzzled as to why he hadn't condemned her to death, and why the true story hadn't come to light. What possible motive could he have had for keeping it a secret? And how had he done it? About twenty knights had seen her kill the king and disappear, decrying Uther's character.

"What's so special about this room?" she asked, despite being able to anticipate the answer.

"That was the ward's room. The Lady Morgana. That's where she died. Some people say that she still haunts the room, looking for the soul of her lost lover, and searching for revenge on King Uther."

Morgana smirked. Revenge had been gotten, that was for sure. "That's quite a story," she said. "So nobody goes in there anymore?"

"Nobody has in years. The other maids and I change the sheets in the other rooms in this wing once a month, but those ones are never touched."

"Oh," Morgana said, keeping her eyes averted. _Just go away_, she thought. _Leave me alone_.

"Say, where are you from?" the girl asked curiously, leaning forward. "What are you doing in Camelot?"

"I'm, um," Morgana floundered. "I'm a relative of the King's. A distant one."

"You must be here for the announcement," the girl guessed. Clearly she was fond of gossip; the witch had no idea how to get rid of her.

"Yes," Morgana hazarded, wishing that the girl would go away. She didn't want to try any obvious magic in case it was still forbidden.

The maid didn't notice her discomfort. Perhaps it was an aftereffect of the obscuring spell. "Yeah, it's not quite official yet, but everyone in the castle knows it. We have for months. When she started getting tired and throwing up in the mornings, it was clear that the queen was pregnant. But King Arthur is releasing a statement in a couple of days and he's going to throw a big party; people from all over the kingdom are coming. We've been working for days to try to accommodate them all." She didn't wait for Morgana to respond. "You must have gotten lost on the way to your room. Have you ever been here before?"

"Yes," she said, trying not to remember the years under Uther's thumb. "Long ago."

"Oh. Do you need me to show you where your room is?"

"No," Morgana said hastily, sensing a chance to get rid of the girl. "I've gotten myself sorted out. Thank you."

"No problem, any time," the girl said, picking her her basket and moving past Morgana. "Oh, and by the way, I'm Megan. I didn't catch your name," she said suddenly, stopping at the head of the stairs and turning back.

"I didn't offer it," Morgana responded, and the girl left, looking confused. She knew better than to question the eccentricities of the nobility, and soon every servant would know the name of every visiting lord and lady. That was how castle gossip spread. "_Merlov_", Morgana whispered to the girl. Hopefully the spell of forgetting would help conceal her presence from the rest of the castle staff. The last thing she needed was word circulating the staff of a mysterious lady who didn't know the story of the King's Ward. She returned her attention to the door. It was locked, but that presented no problem for her. "_Tospringe,"_ she muttered, holding out a hand. The door swung open silently and she stepped through the gap.

It was exactly as she had left it five years before when she'd fled Camelot after murdering the king. Even the papers on the desk had barely been touched. The flowers that had smiled at her from the table back then were now unrecognizable, their petals disintegrated into little piles, ringing the blue glass vase. Hard dried stems were slumped over the side rim, slowly turning to dust. The sheets on the bed hadn't been touched; they were exactly as they had been the morning that Gwen had made them up. Her wardrobe, when she swung the wooden doors open, stank of mothballs, but was otherwise unchanged. It was an uncanny step into her past, and despite her desire to leave, she found herself standing at her window. It held such memories.

She looked down into the courtyard again from the seat there, the place she'd spent so much time trapped in unbearable dread, when each day was a struggle to get through. Catching her breath, she turned from the view and left the room, not bothering to look at anything else. The room was a relic, and it certainly was haunted by the past, though not exactly as the serving girl had thought.

Arthur was certain to be with the wounded knight, so Morgana decided to explore the king's chambers and see if he had taken up residence after his father's death. Fortunately, they weren't so far from her own, and her obscuring spell didn't waver again. She concluded that it must have been the fact that her behavior was so unusual that it drew the attention regardless the spell. For the umpteenth time, she reminded herself that magic was not infallible and resolved to use it less, if she could.

The door to the king's chambers was unlocked, so she simply slipped through as narrow a gap as she could. She figured that this was because servants were in and out every day, changing the sheets, doing the laundry, scrubbing the floor, etc. The room was, at the moment, completely empty.

It was different than when Uther lived there as well. It was not often that Morgana had visited the King in his private room; most of their confrontations had taken place in the throne room. The suite was large, with wide windows that looked away from Camelot, over the fields beyond the city's outer walls. Arthur's clothes were thrown over a chair, waiting to be taken away. Dirty dishes littered the table, and Morgana decided that she should leave before someone showed up to clean the room. She no longer truly trusted her magic. Its limitations would get in her way if she pushed them too hard.

It was the unnamed queen that fascinated her now. A location spell was pretty much out of the question, because scrying for the Queen of Camelot would pretty much give her the crypts unless she was much clearer. Every other dead woman down there was Queen of Camelot at some point, and scrying spells needed to be fairly specific. So she set off in search of the queen.

She cornered a serving boy in a deserted passage and questioned him about where the queen liked to spend her time. His youth made him both easier to convince to talk, and her forgetting spell took to his mind like glitter to glue. He would remember nothing of their conversation later.

Morgana made her way to the palace gardens, where the youth had said the queen liked to spend her afternoons. As she ducked the low archway into the sun, she squinted, remembering how she spent the first month of her life at Camelot in the gardens. She had been distraught over her father's death, and the strange new city and family were confusing. Even as she'd gotten older, the gardens had remained her favorite place to find silence and solitude in the bustling palace. When she had gotten into her late teens she'd become preoccupied with balls and feasts, and the few times she'd managed to get into the gardens she'd taken Gwen with her. Those had been peaceful days.

Carefully picking her way around the flowerbeds, Morgana crept through the garden to her favorite tree. It was where she'd spent countless hours as a child, and where she and Gwen had lain under the summer sun and gossiped about their futures. She didn't know exactly why she had chosen to go there, but soon she found that it was the right place.

She heard a quiet voice as she approached, and slowed until she was hidden behind a different tree. When she peeked out, she was surprised to see Gwen reclining in a light chair under the tree. She wore a blue dress and had a book laying open on her lap, one hand resting on the pages as she talked to a maid. What confused Morgana though, was Gwen's position. Gwen was a servant, she should have been working instead of relaxing.

Then she listened to the conversation. "And tell Lanie that my medicine should be put on the table by the flowers," Gwen finished.

"Yes, your majesty," the servant said, and scurried off. Morgana was shocked. Gwen was the queen? But then she remembered her dream. Gwen had been pregnant in her dream, and when she looked closer – yes! There was the telltale bump. And when she thought back on the vision, it was clear that the room was in the palace, possibly even the king's chambers. Without ever approaching the queen – Gwen – she slunk away, back to speak to Gaius. This was what she had feared. Her vision was already coming true.

**Reviews are much appreciated! Constructive criticism is welcome, but no nastiness, please! :)**


	5. Chapter 4: The Truth About Merlin

**To the anonymous reviewer "Merlin Fan's sister" the answer is no, I do not watch Dr. Who. It's been on my to-do list for a while, but life has been getting in the way.**

**Hope y'all enjoy the new chapter!**

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CHAPTER FOUR: THE TRUTH ABOUT MERLIN

Gaius's chambers were still empty when Morgana returned. She settled herself in a corner and had waited for barely five minutes when the door was opened again and a group of knights clattered in, carrying one of their own on a crude litter between them. Gaius bustled in after them and directed them to put the man on the patient bed.

She hovered like a bat in the corner until they had left. Gaius was tugging the knight's armor off, muttering something about how all the metal they wore was ridiculous and totally impractical when it came to medical care. He jumped a foot into the air when he turned to find Morgana standing over him. She had lifted her spell again.

"Goodness child, you scared me!" he said, moving around her and grabbing some bandages from his table. Blood was seeping from a small cut on his brow. "How long have you been here?"

"I never left," she lied as he lifted the man's head up and began to wrap bandages around it. "How is he?" she asked.

"That has yet to be seen. It seems to me that he's been concussed, though mildly, so we just have to wait until he can wake up, if he ever does. I wouldn't worry about it though."

"When ought that to be?," she asked, making no move to assist him in wrapping the man's head.

"A day or two," he said. There was a loud bang as the door crashed open and his assistant came dashing in.

"I heard that something happened!" she said, instantly dashing across the room to Gaius's side.

"Yes," he said quietly. "Could you research head wounds for me? I fear that my memory is failing me." She nodded and proceeded across the floor to the room that had been Merlin's. The girl didn't even notice Morgana.

The door was completely shut before Morgana would talk. "What happened? Why am I still alive? I would have thought that Arthur would have tried to kill me by now."

"Well, he certainly wanted to. After you left, he went practically insane. He didn't know who to trust. Certainly not you, and I'm sure that if he had seen you, he would have killed you. Arthur and Uther were never close, as you know, so Arthur lost mostly his king when Uther eventually died. But then he tried to refuse to take the crown. He shut himself up for weeks, and it was Gwen who eventually talked him into sense again." Gaius had sat down, but Morgana remained standing. She knew that it made her look intimidating.

"What happened to magic?" Morgana asked. She wanted to ask him about Merlin, but also wanted to get as much information out of him as possible. Merlin would be a sensitive topic for both of them, and knowledge was power in her book. The more she knew, the more she could do.

"Hold on, I'm coming to it," Gaius said, slightly crossly. "Well, Gwen convinced Arthur to take up the crown, and the first thing that he did as king was propose to her. Within half a year, they were married. The people loved Queen Guinevere. She was one of them, she had been a servant before she was Queen, and that gained Arthur a lot of popularity. Which was good, I suppose, because the next thing he did was to lift Uther's ban on magic."

"Why did he do that?" Morgana was intrigued. It made no sense that he would not hate magic, especially when one considered how his father had been killed.

"I'm not really sure," the physician admitted. "When his father died, he wouldn't talk to me. The only person he really still talks to is Gwen. But he did ask about you. He thought that you maybe confided in me about where you were going."

"What did you tell him?" Morgana stepped forward threateningly. She had not yet gotten the full measure of Arthur, and if he knew about her children, he could have had anything planned. She would not risk them for anything.

"I didn't tell him anything," Gaius said hastily.

"Good," Morgana said, losing her threatening demeanor. "I need to speak to you about Merlin." She took a seat at the table, across from Gaius. "What happened the day he died? Between you and him? And I know something did, so don't deny it."

Gaius sighed. "I always knew this day would come," he said to the table, folding his wrinkled hands together on the wood. For a moment there was silence. Morgana knew that he would talk eventually. And talk he did.

"The day he was scheduled to be executed, I became desperate. He was like my son; I couldn't let him die without at the very least trying to save him. So I went to the hallway where I knew he would be led out. I asked the guards for a moment with him, and despite Uther's orders, they let me have one. I told him to escape, to save himself, but he refused. He said he needed to protect you. When I offered to take his place and allow him to live on as me, he got very angry. Merlin claimed that he would not let me sacrifice myself for him, and called the guards back in. I almost used magic then, but I knew that if I did, Merlin would, and he was so powerful that I had no idea how I would have stopped him. So I let him go. He would have done anything for you. He died for you."

Talking about that Day brought strong and painful feelings to the surface. Morgana squashed them and pulled her dream to the forefront of her mind. "You knew that I could See," she said. It wasn't a question, but Gaius nodded anyway.

"I knew it even when you were little."

"I've been having visions again." He didn't react this time, so she went on. "For five years I had none, but now they're back. Most of the dream concerns the fall of Camelot, but for part of it, I see Merlin. I only see things if they will happen, so that means that Merlin is alive somehow." Gaius stood up and busied himself straightening out his papers. His back was to Morgana, a sure sign that he was trying to conceal something. "You know something!" she accused, standing as well. He heaved another sigh and turned to face her. She could see it written across his face, but it was not what she had hoped. Merlin was not alive, but he was willing to reveal a great secret. "Tell me," she ordered.

"I will. I'm trying to phrase it." Gaius looked very much the old man then, his shoulders slumped forward, the weight of the world in the lines on his face. "Merlin's father never met him. He left before he even knew that Hunith was pregnant. Merlin probably told you that he never knew his father, much less who his father was."

"You know," she said, appalled that he had kept such an important secret from Merlin. It would have meant the world to Merlin to meet his father.

"I do. But I also know another secret of his birth. He was not born alone. There was another child, another boy. Merlin's twin."

Morgana's heart fell to the bottoms of her boots. It wasn't her beloved Merlin she'd seen in her vision, but a copy, a different man wearing his likeness. "What happened to him?" she asked. She didn't care for the man, but if he was in her vision, he was certain to be important.

The physician shrugged heavily. "I don't know for sure. I'd traveled to see Hunith soon after Merlin's birth, and she gave me his brother. His name was Alexander. She told me that he needed to be kept safe, that his destiny was separate from Merlin's. I convinced her to entrust him to Teagan, a high priestess of the Old Religion. I don't know where he went from there. All I know is that I never heard of him again, until now."

"Twins run in the family," Morgana said quietly herself. Gaius caught the words, though.

"You had twins?" he asked curiously. "Two boys? Two girls?"

"A boy and a girl." Morgana was completely uninterested in discussing her children. "I need to know about the new restrictions on magic. How free are we?"

"There's the Magic Registry, and the Registrar is pretty picky. People caught using magic when they aren't in the Registry can be punished severely. Nobody's been executed though. Magic is slow coming back. There are only about fifty registered sorcerers right now."

Morgana was quiet. As happy as she was that magic was returning to Camelot, she also needed to find out what was going to happen with her dream. She knew it was going to be soon, because of Gwen's pregnancy, but the only other solid lead besides that was the Merlin lookalike, Alexander. She needed to find him, but the only place she could think of to start besides Gaius was Ealdor and Hunith. Perhaps even Merlin's father. Which reminded her... "Who is Merlin's father?"

Gaius clearly didn't want to answer. "It was not his fault that he was never there for Merlin. There were... circumstances-"

"I want to know his name, his location, Gaius."

"His name is Balinor. He's the last Dragonlord." This just kept getting better and better, Morgana thought. Not only did Merlin have a hidden twin brother, but his father was a Dragonlord, the last one. Gaius hadn't stopped talking though. "I helped him escape from Camelot and he went to Ealdor, but Uther was closing in on him, and he left before Merlin and Alexander were born. I don't know where he went from there. You'd have to ask Hunith."

"Good," Morgana said. She moved to get up. "I should be leaving."

"Aren't you going to speak to Arthur?" Gaius asked, standing up as well. "I think he wants to see you."

Morgana's gray eyes appraised him coolly. "Do you really think so?"

"Well he didn't sound mad when he asked about you. It seemed like he wanted to talk to you, actually," the physician said, confirming her suspicions.

Morgana suddenly remembered the castle from her dream. Perhaps going there would provide her answers faster than traveling all the way to Ealdor. Merlin's parentage would have to wait, because given the state of Gwen's pregnancy, time was running out. And time was of the essence. "May I have a piece of paper?" she asked, ignoring Gaius's question. The physician, perhaps sensing the barely suppressed power behind her voice, handed her a blank page and a quill pen. She sat down and began to sketch. For years she had thought her drawing lessons were a waste of time, but she had discovered a new use for them. Within two minutes she had a simple drawing of the black castle where she'd seen Alexander's room. When she finished she handed the page to Gaius. "Do you know where that is?" she asked.

"Why yes," he began, but stopped himself hastily. "I will tell you if you speak to Arthur. He needs some sort of closure."

Morgana considered for a split second the option of forcing the information out of him, but thought better of it. Magic was not all powerful, and perhaps she needed to speak to Arthur as well. Besides, it wasn't like he could hurt her if she wanted to protect herself. "Alright." she said. "I will speak to Arthur."

* * *

**There you have it. Merlin is, in fact, dead. T.T Please don't kill me!**

**I did that because I DETEST it when people bring characters back to life after they've died. It bugs the hell out of me, so I certainly wasn't going to do it myself. But I hope y'all stay with me despite that...**


	6. Chapter 5: Information

**To those of you who are still with me... thank you. Sorry for killing Merlin, but there's lots of exciting action ahead!**

CHAPTER FIVE: INFORMATION

Morgana decided to visit Arthur later that evening. He was sure to be in his room or in the throne room for dinner, most likely with Gwen. She decided to try his room first. Using a bowl of water she'd talked Gaius into giving her, she scryed into the king's chambers. Sure enough, there he was, sitting on one side of the large table that took up one room in the suite. Gwen sat across from him, but otherwise he was alone. There wasn't even a servant to care for them.

She decided that knocking would be the best thing to do. Polite, rather than magical and intrusive. So as the sun was descending into the land, she made her way up to the king's chambers, her spell firmly in place, her blue velvet hood casting her face into shadow. She paused before raising her hand and knocking cautiously on the door. Curiously, there were no guards.

From within there came the sound of a scraping bench, and Arthur's mumble. He was probably complaining about how he'd asked to be let alone. Morgana smiled. He always was like that. Then the door opened, and his face was peering out at her, driving further thoughts from her head. "Hello?" he asked.

Instead of answering she pushed past him, into the room. Gwen had twisted around in her seat as best she could. "Nice place, Arthur," Morgana commented. "I like what you've done with it."

"Who are you?" Arthur asked in exasperation and anger. "What the hell are you doing interrupting my dinner?"

Morgana smiled, then reached up and lifted her hood away from her face, silently lowering her spell as well. "Don't you recognize me, Arthur?"

"Morgana!" he said in shock. Gwen's mouth dropped open. "What are you doing back? How long have you been back?"

"I needed to speak to Gaius. So tell me, Arthur, why haven't you killed me yet?" She decided to jump right into the meat of the conversation.

He took a step towards her and she took a step back. "Morgana, it's just nice to see you."

"Really?" She tilted her head and locked her eyes with his. "Because the last time I saw you, you swore that I would pay for killing your father."

Gwen, who had kept shut her mouth for that part of the conversation, finally spoke up. "Would you like to sit down?"

"No. Thank you. I want answers."

"It's fine, Guinevere," Arthur said, never moving his eyes. Morgana knew that he was trying to stare her down, but it wasn't going to work. She was not the same woman she had been when she'd last seen him. "I admit it, I did want to kill you. When I saw my father like that, I was angry, and all I wanted to do was hunt you down. At the same time, though, I was happy that you had succeeded. He was a cruel king, but he did what he thought was right. I didn't know what to do. I was so confused. Then Guinevere was there." He smiled at the memory, but she couldn't tell if his smile was genuine.

"She pulled me out of the dark and convinced me that I had to take the crown. And I put you out of my mind. I covered the incident in mystery, ordered all the guards never to mention it, and hid the knife deep in the vaults below the castle. I married Guinevere as soon as I could. That was when I really understood what you felt. I was in love with her before, when she was a serving girl, but I thought it could never be. If you felt about Merlin as I feel about her, I can understand what you went through watching him die. It's unimaginable."

"You do not know it until you feel it," she said, her pain leaking though her façade to color her voice. She took a quick breath in and rebuilt the wall. "What happened to magic?" She knew Gaius's point of view, but needed Arthur's as well.

"I let it in. The people were slow to accept it, and so I created the Magic Registry. All sorcerers must register there, and receive a license. I hope one day to abolish the Registry and the Registrar, but right now it is all that is keeping the people on my side. It was the queen's idea." He broke his gaze to look at his wife.

She smiled. "It's wonderful to see you again, Morgana. Would you like to eat with us?"

"Guinevere didn't tell me anything about you, though I'm sure she knew. You two were like peas in a pod back then. Would you care to enlighten me?"

Morgana didn't really trust him, no matter what pretty words left his lips. Revenge was a powerful motive, and could be easily hidden if one tried hard enough and cared enough. She knew from experience. "No, thank you," she repeated in response to both of their questions. Arthur sat back down anyway. "I should probably go," she said, moving towards the door again.

"Why?" Arthur sounded almost frantic. "Can't you stay awhile? I don't know anything about you anymore. Please."

"No. I have important things to do. Maybe we will meet again." She turned before either of them could respond and left, to return to Gaius. He had things to tell her.

#####

Gaius was not prepared to have her return so soon. He too sat at dinner, but alone. His assistant was not with him, and Morgana asked about her the instant she stepped through the door. They must not be interrupted or overheard by anyone.

"She's at home, with her family," he responded. "They live in Camelot."

"Excellent. Now you have some explaining to do," Morgana took a seat across from the old man, waiting expectantly for him to begin talking.

"Did you do as I asked?"

"Yes. I saw Arthur. But I don't want to talk about it, so don't ask. Where is the castle that I saw in my vision?"

Gaius her a look, but began talking around his food. "It's far north, across the Mountains of the Winds. I went there once, when I was young and training in the Old Religion. The castle is called the Kall's Keep, or the Kall's Citadel depending on where you're from. It's a very powerful place, steeped in ancient magic. Few have ever lived there for any length of time. Only the most powerful can stay for longer than about a month, or the energy of the place starts to sap their power and strength. Even entering the doors takes strength of character and mental preparation."

"Thank you," Morgana said, standing up.

"Are you going to travel there magically?" Gaius asked, standing up as well. "You don't know-"

"Believe me, Gaius, I know the dangers. Magical transport is fidgety and difficult, and one should never try to transport oneself to a place to which one has never been before. I have a horse outside the city walls. I'll take him over the mountains."

"Be careful, my dear," he called as she reached the door. Morgana got the feeling that he wasn't telling her everything, but she didn't push it. If obstacles arose, she would deal with them accordingly.

She turned around, her beautiful face smiling, her gray eyes sparkling despite the darkness of her task. "I always am."

**#####**

It took her seven days of hard riding to reach the mountains. Morgana had never seen the mountains before; they were too far north of Camelot for her to ever have had need to travel there. She did not expect them to be so massively tall. They reached far into the sky, so tall that their tops were invisible, wreathed in white and gray clouds. At a loss for what to do, she decided to take refuge in a nearby town and see if anyone could give her advice on how to cross the Mountains of the Wind.

The tavern was small and crowded when she opened the creaky door and stepped into the heavy air. Smoke hovered across the ceiling, rising from the bowls of pipes that hung from the mouths of the people seated at the crude wooden tables, the handles of mugs in their fingers. Most of them were men, so she kept an eye out for them. She walked to the bar and pulled a gold coin from her pouch, placing it on the counter.

"Can you tell me where I might find a map across the Mountains of the Wind?" she asked the barkeep, flashing him her brightest smile. Sometimes magic wasn't necessary to coerce people into telling things that they might have wanted to keep to themselves.

"Well, mebbe I can get ye a drink first, luv," he said, leering at her.

She dropped the smile. "No. Information only."

He scowled, sweeping the coin into his palm. "There ain't no maps 'cross the Mountains. There ain't no way 'cross neither. You gotta go through."

"And where might I find this way through?"

"Not sure I 'member," he said, the gold flashing between his fingers. "Mebbe I could get someth'ng to help my old mind..."

Morgana rolled her eyes and pulled another coin from her pouch. The man's grimy fingers snatched it from her clean ones and she withdrew her hand swiftly. "Information, now."

"It ain't gonna do ye no good, lady," he said, rubbing the coin. "Nobody gets through nohow, and I 'spect you ain't no different."

"Tell me what I payed you for." Her voice hardened, her eyes flashed. With one hand she pushed her cloak aside to reveal the handle of the knife hanging at her waist.

"Now now, there ain't no need fer tha'," he said hastily. "Follow th' road up into th' Mountains. When ye come to a fork, take th' left one. It'll be dark, but keep going until ye reach the end of the path. There'll be a wall, and it'll look like ye can't get nowhere else. Then she'll find ye, challenge ye. Win the challenge, she'll open the tunnel, lose it, ye'll die. I'm gonna encourage you not to take it, be safe instead."

"Thank you," Morgana said. "Do you have a room that I might have for the night?"

"Sure, lady. Mebbe ye wanna buy a drink before?" he asked, hopefully. The strange woman scared him, but money was money.

"No thank you," she said coldly. "Perhaps there's also a stable for my horse?"

"Yeah," he said, part of him grateful that she wasn't going to stay and drink. "Jimmy!" A small boy emerged from a back room. "Show our guest to th' stables, then up t' a room, th' best room, I think."

"Yessir." The boy came around the bar and Morgana followed him out, grabbing the reins to her horse on the way past. The stable was dark and smelled strongly of horse, but Morgana didn't mind. It was a familiar, comforting smell both from her time at Camelot and her life at Prycrest. The boy, Jimmy, led her to a stall, then backed away politely as she took her bags off the horse and unsaddled him. As she closed the stall door, she muttered a quick ward of protection. She couldn't risk losing the horse; he was too valuable to her quest.

The room she was led to was very small compared to her lodgings either at Camelot or Prycrest, but clearly the best that the small somewhat grimy inn had to offer. "Thank you," she said, turning to Jimmy and putting a single gold coin in his dirty hand. "I get the feeling that you are not always well treated. Keep the coin safe, and travel to Prycrest when you are able. There you will find refuge. If you go to the castle and ask for Freya, she will give you good fair work. If they refuse, tell them that the mistress of the house sent you and ask them how the tree grows. They will let you see her, and she will help you, I swear." The tree was a sign between Morgana and Freya. Neither could bear to see someone in distress, and so had set up the subtle signal years before should something like this ever come to pass.

His eyes widened at the shiny piece of metal and her kind words. "Thank you, my lady," he breathed. For a moment it looked as though he wanted to say something else, but instead he turned and left, stowing the coin somewhere among his clothes. Morgana smiled. He reminded her a little of the druid boy from her past, but less confident. The protective charm she'd placed on him would get him there safely, should he decide to take her advice. Somehow she didn't doubt that he would.

Morgana set her wards around the doors and windows. The town was not the most sophisticated of places, and the locals were sure to be interested in an obviously wealthy woman traveling alone. She was taking no chances. She pulled her hair from its braid and her feet from their boots before settling back on the rough cloth of the bedspread for some much needed rest.

**Reviews are always appreciated! Constructive criticism please, and if you don't like it, put it nicely. Nastiness is never appreciated.**


	7. Chapter 6: The Guardian

CHAPTER SIX: THE GUARDIAN

_Camelot is burning, collapsing. The white stones crash from the highest reaches of the castle into the lower town, where fires burn and children run screaming for their mothers. For the first time, she can see dark shapes that swoop over the city like living shadows, reaching for the walls under the cover of the dark and ripping them apart. The knights frantically man the catapults, flinging balls of fire into the sky without any success. Arthur dashes from one room to the other, searching for someone and crying a name like he's going to die if he cannot find who he is searching for. Now she knows that it is Gwen's._

_Then she is at the Kall's Keep again. The man who is not Merlin is searching through a book, muttering words to himself. A woman steps from the shadows, her skin almost as black as the night skies. The man looks up, and his eyes flash gold. The woman's flash in response, and everything turns to white and red and black._

Morgana awoke with a start, mercifully silent in the unfamiliar boardinghouse. If she had screamed or cried out, there was no sign of it. Her hair hung limp around her face, and she brushed it out of her eyes with one shaking hand. The sun was beginning to turn the sky light again, so she got up and dressed, trying to put the images given her by the vision out of her head.

She redressed, this time in black pants and chain mail. Her sword and dagger hung obviously from her belt, not only to keep people away, but also to reassure herself. When under pressure she tended to forget more advanced defensive magic, and so kept her metal weapons by her. She tied her hair back in a braid and repacked her bags before slinging her blue cloak around her shoulders and stepping back to admire the effect in the cloudy mirror hanging on the wall.

The inn was almost empty when she made her way down the rickety stairs. Only the innkeeper sat in a chair by the bar, snoring softly. Morgana inched her way past him and closed the door softly behind herself. The night had been uneventful except for her dream. Nobody had gotten past her wards, not that she'd expected anyone to. One man had tried, but was unable to open the door, and after his third attempt had received a sharp jolt of electricity to his hand. He hadn't tried again after that.

She saddled her horse and left the stable as quietly as possible, trying to draw as little attention to herself as she was able. Her visit to the main room of the tavern had caused enough of a stir the night before, and Morgana wanted to get out of there as swiftly as was feasible.

The roads were quiet on her way out of town. It was only when she reached the outskirts that the people really began to wake up. The few who saw her wondered why she was dressed as a noble and was riding towards the Mountains of the Winds, but didn't care enough to put any thought to it. They all new that nobles had their eccentricities.

It was noon when she reached the fork in the path. As the barman had told her, she went left. She knew that he had been telling the truth, both because she had paid him handsomely for it, and because the left had a stronger aura of magic surrounding it. Since she'd begun her magical training she'd come to recognize the feeling that magic left in the air, the heaviness it induced into the atmosphere. Steeling herself for what was sure to come, she urged the horse forward, into the narrow passage between the tall cliffs. The trail was wide enough for two horses to ride comfortably side by side, but felt tighter than that.

Morgana had been traveling for almost four hours, and the canyon was deep in shadow as the sun had left its zenith and moved towards the horizon, when she reached the end of the line. It was as the man had said; a tall wall of solid stone. She saw no way through or around it, but could feel the magic there as well. It was stronger than in the rest of the cavern, more strongly leaking magic, but she could find no magical lever. At a loss for what to do, she dismounted and began to prepare herself for the night. The man had implied that this woman couldn't be found, that she had to find Morgana.

The witch was lucky that she had magic. If she had not she would have had to suffer the night's chill with no protection save her cloak and blanket, but as it was, she conjured a small ball of white flames to float a foot above the ground and light her way through the night.

Hours passed. Morgana ate, then watched as the sky turned to navy and little specks of stars came into view of the slender opening at the top of the cavern. The horse moved quietly in the dark, but was mostly silent. The moon was peeking over the edge of the stone cliff when something finally happened.

The horse began to shift restlessly and nickered softly, whuffling and stamping. Morgana stood up to comfort him, grabbing the bridle and running her hand down his nose. He stilled, then reared back as the fire suddenly roared high, then receded again. Morgana struggled to keep her hold on the bridle, focusing on calming the flustered animal rather than finding out what had caused its change in temperament. The guessed that the woman the innkeeper had mentioned had arrived.

"That's a nice animal," a voice said as she succeeded in soothing the horse. "Strong teeth, long legs."

"Thank you," Morgana said, turning to face the magical intruder. She stopped short. The girl standing across the fire was stunningly beautiful, far outside the realm of what Morgana had imagined she would look like and more beautiful than any lady Morgana had seen before either in Camelot or Prycrest. She wore a silver dress to cover skin as white as new snow. Red hair the color of fire cascaded down her body like a flaming waterfall, and glowing golden eyes shone from the shadows cast over where she stood. Though not particularly tall, her high cheekbones and arching eyebrows made up for it by giving her an unmistakable air of power and control. On her feet were thin silver slippers and rings of silver glittered from her long, fine, fingers. Her voice was smooth and young, enchanting enough to ensnare any man's feelings. She appeared physically to be about seventeen years old, but her eyes gave her away as much much older than that and held a wisdom of eternity and the suffering of centuries. Morgana regained her composure, suddenly feeling shabby beside the arrival.

"I assume that you are here to pass through the Mountains of the Wind." The woman stepped forward, further into the flickering light of the fire. "Not many come this way anymore."

"I am here to pass through. You must be the Keeper."

"Though I do keep the path, that is not my name. I am called the Guardian. So have I been for ages, so I shall continue to be. However, the question is not of my worthiness, past or future, it is of yours."

"I was told I would be challenged," Morgana said, facing the woman head on, one hand still wrapped around the reins of her horse, partly to keep the animal there, partly to steady her own shaking nerves. "I am ready."

"Be warned, the tests cannot be undertaken lightly. They are each different, and should you fail one, you will perish and your soul will belong to me, do be treated as I see fit. Do you still desire to begin?"

Morgana took a deep breath and thought of her past and her future. Her children needed her to live, but she needed to at least try to prevent the future she saw. The man, Alexander, was in the Kall's Keep, on the other side of the Mountains. She must get to him. "Yes. I am ready."

The girl smiled, revealing teeth that had been filed into points. When they were revealed, her beauty became less radiant and instead darker, more dangerous. "Excellent. There will be three parts to the challenge. The first is, for tradition's sake, a riddle."

"I am ready," Morgana repeated. The Guardian eyed her, then began to speak.

"I have many feathers to help me fly. I have a body and a head but I'm not alive. It is your strength which determines how far I fly. You can hold me in your hand, but I am never thrown. What am I?"

_Think, Morgana, think,_ the witch told herself furiously, concentrating on the words. Feathers, a body, a head, flight. What did it all mean when it was put together? "Could you repeat the riddle?" she asked. The Guardian bared her sharpened teeth, but did as was requested. The words were repeated, and Morgana listened more closely.

_It can't be a bird because it's not alive. It also cannot be a bat, because bats have no feathers, not a butterfly, nothing living._ Morgana rubbed the leather of the bridle, thinking hard. The Guardian stood patiently, as though she had all the time in the world. _A body and a head, but not alive. And the bit about the strength and the hand?_ _Feathers. What were feathers used for? Decorations, especially in the Druid culture, stuffing pillows and mattresses, but none of those fly._ Her mind was whirling. _Feathers are used for dusters, arrows – Arrows! _Morgana ran through the clues in her head. An arrow would fit them all. A wide smile split her face.

"You know the answer." It was not a question. "Tell me."

"An arrow." Morgana had always been proud of her ability to outguess anyone in a riddle competition, but never had she imagined that it would come in so handy.

"You have passed the first challenge," The Guardian said, her voice honey smooth. "The second is a test of strength and magic. Pick up the sword." The girl gestured to the ground in front of Morgana, where a sword had appeared, its tip in the ground. When she pulled it from the ground, Morgana could see that it was both old and very very sharp.

The Guardian waved her hands, and the ball of fire disappeared. Instead four spheres of light materialized from nothing and floated above their heads, forming a square and illuminating a wide swath of ground. The horse backed up nervously, but didn't run from the magical display. "Am I going to fight you?" Morgana asked, testing the balance of the weapon.

"Yes. Magic is forbidden from either party. And do not expect to win." Another sword appeared in the girl's hand, shimmering with magic. Without warning, she swung at Morgana, who brought her sword up just in time to block the blow. Steel clashed on steel as the Guardian pressed Morgana backwards, down the long path.

Years of training took over Morgana's muscles and mind, and she began to press back, slashing at the girl's arm, feinting right and turning left. They inched back, towards the end wall of the canyon. The horse still didn't stir save for an ear twitching, even as they clattered past. The Guardian drew back, pulling her weapon back. "You are good, that is sure," she said, not breathing hard. Morgana didn't respond. The woman lunged again, but as Morgana moved to parry the attack, she found herself with no sword to meet. A blow came to her shoulder, and she flew sideways, smashing into the rock wall. She moaned in pain, getting slowly to her feet. The Guardian laughed cruelly, allowing her time to regain her feet and roll her shoulders, trying to alleviate the sharp pain. "That was slow. Perhaps you aren't as good as I had hoped."

Morgana narrowed her eyes, concentrating. She rolled her shoulders again in an effort to shake the shooting pains away, and hefted her sword. Without warning, she feinted right and spun left, bringing the blade up and completely expecting to hit the Guardian. With a bone-jarring crash her sword was stopped against the other. "Much better," the woman said, grinning. "Clever. Good of you not to give up either." With what seemed more like a casual flick of her wrist than any fighting move, she pushed on Morgana's sword and sent her stumbling backwards. Quickly regaining her balance, Morgana looked up at the woman. Once again, she moved in, gripping the hilt of her weapon with both hands. For another five minutes they fought, sparks flashing where their blades met, spinning to avoid the other's attacks. Her sword training took over completely and she stopped thinking.

The heated battle didn't last for much longer though. With a swift stroke, the Guardian twisted the hilt of the sword out of Morgana's hand and slammed her shoulder into the other woman's chest, shoving her over. The bright tip of the blade pressed itself against Morgana's chest, and she froze, defeated. "Good job." The Guardian pulled the blade up, and it shimmered and disappeared. Morgana struggled to her feet, allowing herself to feel her aches. "I didn't expect you to last that long. You have passed the test."

"But I lost," Morgana asked, confused.

"It's not about winning or losing, but how you play," The Guardian said cryptically before continuing. "We must move on to the next test. The moon is moving past." Indeed, the moon was shining directly down into the canyon. Soon it would pass beyond the edge of the rock and be lost to their sight.

"What is this next test?" Morgana needed to get through the tunnel and find the man, and the faster the better. Who knew how long the test would last, and she didn't know how long she would travel through the passage under the mountains.

"This is not a test that you participate in actively. Give me your hands." The Guardian held out her hands, palms up. They were pure white and soft, as though they had never seen a day of work or a sword fight. Also, they were peculiarly unlined, smooth as porcelain or glass. Warily, Morgana placed her own hands in the woman's. The Guardian closed her eyes and clenched her fingers around Morgana's. Her skin was unnaturally cold, her fingers held unexpected strength as they clutched Morgana's. Eyes twitched under their lids, like the woman was having a waking nightmare.

"You are a mysterious woman, Lady Morgana," the Guardian said finally, opening her strange golden eyes and peering into Morgana's gray ones. "Your destiny has been reshaped so often, both by your doing and others, that it is difficult to see the truth of you. Fate has willed that you should walk this path, though the outcome is yet uncertain. The path your feet are set upon is narrow and starless, and you should dare not stray for fear of undoing all that you hold dear. Souls are difficult to read at the best of times, but I have never met one quite like yours. Darkness resides within, warring with the light you presently serve."

Morgana was visibly shaken by this judgement. "Am I worthy or not?" she asked, trying to cover up her feelings. Darkness she knew, and light she also knew, but she had never been judged as so before. Most people only saw what they wanted to see.

"Curious. I must pronounce you to be worthy, for that is what you are, however I also must provide you a warning. Heed my words, Lady Morgana, for they may mean more than they seem. The destiny of many rests within these hands I hold. Do not decide upon a course of action lightly, lest you should regret it someday. Time will not permit you to lament your mistakes, only to learn from them. Yet your mistakes would ruin kingdoms and destroy lives, so ponder each decision with great care before you chose a path." The Guardian released the other's hands, and Morgana pulled them back, rubbing them together in the hope of regaining blood flow. "You are free to go, if you desire. Think upon what I have said." And the woman was gone. Behind her, the wall was no longer solid, but a tunnel leading through the mountains.

Morgana knew that any warning was not to be lightly taken, especially from one as powerful and ancient as the Guardian, but she knew that she must go on and find the man, Alexander. He was important, he was the only link she had to the future she had seen, and she had to prevent the fall of Camelot. And so she packed up her things and entered the magical tunnel, its dark aura enveloping her.

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**Reviews are always welcome... :)**


	8. Chapter 7: Visions

CHAPTER SEVEN: VISIONS

The tunnel was dark as tar. The black was impenetrable with the naked eye, and Morgana moved forward cautiously, leading her faithful horse. She was entering the world of magic, and she didn't know what would happen if she tried to use it. By the time she had hit her shin on a rock for the sixth time, she was fed up. "_Koh girt badare!" _she whispered, and a ball of light appeared above her hand.

It illuminated a long black tunnel stretching ahead of her, seemingly endlessly into the mountain. Large boulders were scattered across the uneven floor and pebbles crowded around the corners, where the walls met the floor. The rocks were strange and black, but reflective, almost like glass. Morgana had never seen their like.

For was seemed to be hours, she moved unhindered along the passage. She didn't want to stop, but soon grew hungry, and sat down upon one of the boulders to eat. Strangely though, she didn't feel tired despite having not slept well at the inn, and not having slept at all that night. Only when she had finished eating did she look up and realize that the tunnel was ending, but not with an exit as she had hoped.

Instead it opened into a large hall, with walls made of the same strange black glass that she was sitting on at the moment. Morgana led the horse cautiously into the cavern, looking around. Her light reflected off the walls, and by its light she could see that the chamber was not as big as she had originally estimated it to be. The glass of the walls had quadrupled its size, but in truth it was not much larger than the throne room in Camelot. Morgana could see herself repeated infinitely in the reflections, and she shuddered at the eerie image. Stones also littered the ground there, doubling back her likeness in fragments. The effect was uncanny. The room contained a strange aura, and, feeling uncomfortable, she began across it.

Halfway across, however, a minor disaster struck. Her light winked out and she froze in sudden and overwhelming terror. The horse didn't seem disquieted in the least, but Morgana no longer considered him to be an accurate judge of imminent danger, given what had happened with the Guardian. Her pupils widened in a futile attempt to capture any light in the inky black.

And catch light they did. A small scene was emerging across the surface of a boulder, lighting the air around it. Strangely captivated, Morgana inched towards it, dropping her horse's reins and trusting that he would stay still. The images moved, and almost seemed as though it was one of her visions. Yet this portrayed unbelievable things, that Morgana could never have imagined. Placing one hand on either side of the boulder she leaned in for a closer look.

_Uther is marrying a woman, tall and beautiful, but she turns to a troll as Morgana watches, stinking and ugly. Uther doesn't notice, though the court does. Morgana herself is there, watching in disgust, but doing nothing. Then a tall woman with blonde hair and brown eyes who seems curiously familiar is challenging Arthur to a duel and winning, but not killing him. There, in the background! Merlin is alive and well, but the images speed up, until short flashes are all she sees. They slow, and show her beloved with another woman – kissing her. Morgana's heart clenches, she almost cries out in pure pain to see him alive and well and not with her. Whenever they are shown together, she and Merlin are cool and distant, as friends rather than lovers._

_Mordred comes and goes before she can see him more clearly, then it is herself again, sitting on the floor of the throne room. She is ripping cloth into strips, then sees Merlin, and he hands her water, asking her to drink. She takes it and sips. Morgana watches as she dies, slowly, in Merlin's arms as he cries and cradles her. There the tall blonde woman is again and she takes Morgana to herself as though it is the end of the world that she is dead. They disappear in a whirling column of wind._

_More images: a knife, beautifully red and silver; Morgana raising it high above Uther's sleeping back; vicious words between herself and Merlin; magic, secretive, performed in her rooms at night; meetings with the blonde woman and a tall dark man; then the most haunting of them all. Herself, eyes cold and hard as ice, crowned queen of Camelot while Uther kneels before her and the woman stands smirking behind her throne._

Morgana ripped herself away from the dreadful sight, tears running down her cheeks. The horse, startled by the sudden motion, bolted across the dark room and disappeared into the other tunnel. She couldn't bring herself to care. The terror of those visions gripped her heart, the one of Merlin kissing the other woman replaying itself in her mind. She was surprised at some level that it was that that stuck in her head, rather than the terrible and beautiful visions of herself in power. A deep, rich voice echoed through the cavern.

** You may cry, but that was your future.**Morgana didn't respond vocally, but her head shot up and she looked around for the source of the noise. **If you had not loved Merlin, that was your destiny, your fate. It is powerful magic that can change ages of prophecy, witch.**

"Who are you?" Morgana regained control of herself. Years of practice helped; it was only when she was alone that she really let herself go. "Where are you? What is this place?"

The voice laughed, a resonant sound.** I am the spirit of the MirrorHall. I know and see all, and show you your truth. I reside all around you, in the walls and the floor and the air.**

"Why have you shown me this?"

**You needed to know. Merlin was destined to be a great man, a great sorcerer to a great king. Yet your actions and his changed it and altered the very course of history. Still, with his death came new life. Cade and Emlyn.**

"What do you know of my children?"

**Their great destiny is inherited from your unfulfilled one. Merlin's as well. Arthur's child is fated to be the king his father cannot. The twins lives are entwined with his child's.**

"You are lying. They have no destiny. You cannot force one upon them. Freer than the birds they are and shall remain with no chains of prophecy weighing them down."

**I have given them no destiny, it is born to them. And** **with such parents, how could it not be so? **The voice laughed again. **You posses great power, and should not be scared for yourself because of it. Fear not yourself, only those that would do you harm.**

"Why do you tell me this?" Morgana repeated as she tried to make sense of the situation.

** Because you need to know. The power you posses is great. The power your children posses is greater still. You know the truth; it cannot be purged from your mind. You are free to leave, witch.**

Morgana's light burst into dazzling existence above her again and the spirit's voice dissipated the last remnants echoing in the crevices of glass-like stone. She looked around, searching for a sign of the voice, and almost screamed. Merlin's face was gazing at her from the wall, his kind blue eyes looking lovingly at her as they had when he was alive. Then the massive mouth opened, and his voice spoke straight into her head. "Morgana. I love you."

"I love you," she whispered, trembling. "I'm so sorry, so sorry," but the vision dissolved before any response could be made. She ran, tears blurring her eyes and the light following behind her, bobbing through the air. She knew not how long she mad-dashed through the tunnel, but she emerged from the other end of the passage into the sun unscathed. Her horse stood patiently waiting for her, reins scraping against the ground.

She stopped, panting to catch her breath. Her tears had gone, and when she tried to steady herself on the stone wall, found that she was shaking severely. Slumping to the ground, Morgana tried to push the feelings away but they would not leave.

She looked up, assessing her position in an attempt to cover the violent and intrusive feelings. Those were long past. A wide valley stretched out in front of her. Most of it was forested and the central region was flat, rising into foothills and mountains along the edges. Though the trees she could see castles and citadels rising up. Some seemed deserted while others smoked with activity. Little clearings indicated the presence of villages, but she didn't focus much on these details. To her right and about a half-day's ride away was the black castle she'd seen in her dream. Gaius had called it the Kall's Keep.

Morgana was exhausted, but couldn't bring herself to stay longer at the entrance to the tunnel. It was far too creepy for her to be comfortable there. As she reached for her horse, she found that one of her hands was clenched around something, and when she opened her fingers, discovered that it was one of the pebbles from the MirrorHall. It was perfectly round and smoothly black. Her warped reflection was the only thing visible in its glossy surface. In a fit of anger, she made to throw it away, but found that she couldn't let it go. The rock seemed stuck to her fingers.

With the other hand, she pulled it off. It offered no resistance, but when she tried to drop it again, it wouldn't let go of her skin. Three minutes later, and after much swearing and spastic flailing of arms, Morgana accepted the fact that she was stuck with the rock, and decided to try to put it into one of her bags. It dropped into the sack with no problem. She rolled her eyes and mounted her faithful horse. Due to the height of the sun, she knew that she wouldn't reach the Kall's Keep by sunset, but would definitely get there the following morning.

The woods were not the same as the woods in Camelot. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but they seemed... darker, while being more alive at the same time. Once she swore that she saw a unicorn flash white between the shadows, and a wide-winged griffin soar overhead. Neither payed her any mind. When it got too dark to continue, Morgana chose to stop for the night rather than continue on. This was a new place to her and she could sense it was a land of magic. It was better not to use hers for light rather than risk being caught by people more powerful and dangerous than she.

A small clearing provided the perfect place to stay, and she dismounted carefully. Whispering quietly, she set up basic, uncomplicated wards around her spot and ate cold food. Then she began to feel the days. It had been nearly two days since she'd slept, and her body was suddenly as tired as it ought to have been.

She collapsed onto her sleeping pad and pulled her cloak over herself, losing herself to sleep again.

_The white walls of Camelot collapse, and she can see the shadows pulling the stones from the buildings, their dark bodies invisible against the black sky, except where they block the diamond-like stars from shining. Arthur dashes through the halls, and she can hear him clearly this time. He is screaming Gwen's name as though losing her would mean the end of the world._

_Gwen lies on the bed in the king's chambers, her stomach swelling above her. Rocks fall like snow past the windows, and a single servant bustles about the room. Arthur bursts in, but the vision changes, and she sees the Kall's Keep._

_Alexander and the woman are talking, and the woman offers him a crystal. He looks into it, sees something, and falls backward with a cry. "You promised!" he shouts, raising his hands. His eyes flash, the woman flies across the room and smashes into the wall, her dark skin slick with blood. The Merlin-lookalike freezes, then drops the crystal and dashes to her. As he lifts her head, her eyes open and flash gold, cold gold._

Morgana awoke with a start. She was getting tired of the dreams. They were mostly repetitive, especially when it came to the visions of Camelot and Arthur. But new aspects of Alexander's role were constantly being revealed, and she couldn't help but wonder whose side he would end up being on.

In the half-light of a rising sun Morgana lifted her wards and continued towards the Kall's Keep, mostly because she couldn't sleep anymore, and she felt that going to the Keep would take her mind off the disturbing visions of Camelot's destruction. She couldn't help but wonder what the visions of dark shadows in the sky were, but figured that she would soon know, either through Alexander or through living the night.

By the time the sun had risen completely above the horizon, she had reached the entrance of the castle. It was tall and black, completely without expression or life. It appeared as if it were deserted, with no lights in the windows and no smoke from the chimneys. She slid off the horse and left it standing in the small clearing in front of the castle.

A large stone path led through a large portcullis through which was visible a small courtyard with multiple doors and hallways leading out from it. She could see slits in the stone walls where archers would be placed in the event of a siege, and the utilitarian design of the building was so unlike Camelot's artistic turrets and arches that Morgana was instantly wary. Even though Gaius had warned her that it was a place of ancient and intense power, its aura was not different from the woods around her, which made her slightly suspicious. Despite that, she crept closer. Upon inspection, the archway of the portcullis had runes carved into them. Even with her limited knowledge of runes, Morgana could tell that they were of the Old Religion, and very powerful. She shook her head and stepped through the doorway.


	9. Chapter 8: Alexander

CHAPTER EIGHT: ALEXANDER

Previously: _Even with her limited knowledge of runes, Morgana could tell that they were of the Old Religion, and very powerful. She shook her head and stepped through the doorway._

The instant her body passed through the doorway, she could feel the weight of the magic pressing her on all sides. It was oppressive and stifling, seeming to pierce through her skin and reach her bones, her heart, her soul. Crippled by the unexpected change, Morgana collapsed to her knees, her palms flat against the cobblestone path as she tried to regain her breath.

All her carefully constructed defenses crumbled to nothing under the onslaught of magic. Gaius's words returned to her, and she could see why it might be difficult to live in such a place for long. She marveled that people did. Her vision blurred, her muscles shook. Morgana didn't understand how she would survive the experience. Then, just when it seemed that she would be destroyed, it stopped. The magic within her leveled with the magic outside her, and she could think again.

Slowly, she crawled to her feet, still weakened from the inner battle. Magic had never revealed that side of itself to her, and it was shocking and deep. Yet, now that the initial pain was gone, Morgana felt better than ever. The world seemed to be brighter, more vibrant. Colors were brilliant and even the formerly stark and plain walls of the Keep shone with inner light and weren't as threatening as before. She closed her eyes and drank in the power. It was intoxicating.

All at once, her vision returned to her, in all its terrible glory. Her gray eyes snapped open and she peered around at the doorways. Nobody had witnessed her reaction to the magic, and she was relieved for it. She needed to find where Alexander was. Looking for the large room she'd seen in her vision seemed a good place to start, but she had no idea where it could be. So Morgana chose a doorway at random and began to explore.

Most of the castle was empty of all furniture and life, save the spiders spinning cobwebs in the corners and rats skittering along the flagged floors. Dust lay like a blanket over almost everything, obscuring the windows and making it difficult to breathe. She had been searching for almost an hour before she came to a room that looked inhabited. The remains of a fire still smoldered in the fireplace, and the dust that characterized the rest of the castle was noticeably absent.

She knew she was getting closer, but didn't expect to turn around and almost run straight into the woman from her vision. She was tall, taller than Morgana had expected. Her dark skin glowed in the thin shafts of light that cut from the narrow windows.

"You are here."

Morgana took a step back. "Yes, I guess I am. Who are you?" She could guess, but wanted to hear it from the woman's own lips before making a complete fool of herself.

The woman angled her head and looked knowingly into Morgana's gray eyes. "I am Teagan. And you are Morgana." The last part wasn't a question, but a statement.

"How do you know who I am?" Morgana was wary. Despite her ability to see the future, she distrusted others with the ability. It made them dangerous opponents.

"You changed the entire fate of the future. Anyone as powerful as I am would know you. And I do not take intrusions into the Kall's Keep lightly. You must posses power even to survive long past the gate, much less have the capacity to think and function afterwards."

"Do you know why I am here?"

"No. But I do know that you are." Teagan was proving to be rather more unhelpful than Morgana had hoped or foreseen.

"I need to speak to Alexander." Morgana knew that the woman knew him from her vision, but didn't know how helpful she would be in finding him, especially given her current track record.

Teagan's face didn't change, but her gaze seemed to intensify somehow. "Why would you want to do that? Surely you know who he is?"

"I know exactly who he is," she bluffed. In reality, she only knew a very little about him. Just what Gaius had told her, and what she had seen in her visions.

Teagan shook her head in an almost regretful motion, then said "I will show you to him. Who am I to disrupt destiny?" The last bit was rhetorical, but Morgana put it from her mind. Priestesses tended to think a lot of themselves, and tried to show it through their cryptic questions and riddles that were never intended to be answered, only to sound impressive.

However, despite that, Morgana did know that Teagan was dangerous. Any Priestess of the Old Religion was incredibly powerful and innumerably ancient and shouldn't be treated like a fool, no matter how strange or amusing the things they said were. The woman turned and left, expecting Morgana to follow her. As much as she hated being treated like a follower, Morgana did as she was expected to. Alexander, not the retention of her pride, was the goal.

Up a flight of stairs she was led, to a set of wooden double doors. Teagan knocked on one then called out. "Alexander, you have a guest."

"Who is it? Come in." Morgana's breath was almost taken away by his voice. It was like Merlin's all over again. She hadn't heard that precious sound in over five years, except in her dreams.

Teagan, not noticing Morgana's distress, pushed the door open and motioned for Morgana to follow her. She peered expectantly around the room, both wanting desperately to see Alexander, and wishing the moment would never come. Her heart nearly stopped when she saw a tall man standing with his back to her. Except for his shoulder-length hair, tied back in a ponytail at the base of his neck, he could have been Merlin. Big ears and everything. He was even dressed like Merlin had been.

"What are you doing, Alexander?" Teagan asked, moving to stand beside him and putting a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Nothing, just research" he said, shifting slightly to give her easier sight to what he was looking at. "Who is this guest?"

"See for yourself," Teagan offered, waving one graceful hand at Morgana, who still stood like a rock, trying to regain control of herself.

Alexander turned around. The sight of his face brought back a barrage of memories of her time with Merlin in Camelot. Merlin smiling at her, Merlin laughing at a shared joke. The flowers he offered to her, the kisses he had laid on her lips, his arms around her when she was afraid of herself and her powers, the sweet things he had said to her in the dark of the night. Gasping for air, Morgana stepped backwards, putting out a hand for something to steady herself with.

"Are you alright?" Alexander asked, hurrying to take her arm and guide her to a straight-backed wooden chair, where she sat, trying to regain her breath.

"Yes, I'm fine." She finally brought herself to look him in the face again. Alexander's blue eyes looked worriedly back at her. One cheek was adorned by a looping white scar, thin and intricate.

"I will leave you to it," Teagan said with mild amusement as she closed the door and left them alone.

Alexander didn't even seem to notice the priestess's absence, and certainly didn't acknowledge her exit. "Are you sure you're okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I have."

"What do you mean?" The man looked puzzled, but had evidently decided that she was physically fine, because he left her side and pulled up another chair. "There are no spirits in the Keep."

"Living ones." Against her will, Morgana put out a hand as though she would touch his face and somehow conjure Merlin out of his twin's body. "Sorry. You look very much like someone I once knew." She withdrew her hand sharply and hid it under her cloak.

"It's okay." There was a silence for a moment. "Who are you? Why did you say you are here? You must have magic to survive pas the gate, but if you were here to study, you'd want to talk to Teagan, not me."

"My name is Morgana, and I am not here to study. I had a vision, and you were in it. I needed to come speak to you, see how you were connected."

Alexander's eyes widened. "A Seer? What was your vision about?"

Quickly, Morgana told him of her dreams, and of his part in them. She left out her connection to Camelot and his connection to her. "I don't know what the creatures were, the ones that were attacking Camelot. Do you have any idea?"

"Hmm." He leaned back in his chair and looked across the room at a mirror, thinking. "Well, they sound like they're Draks, but I can't really be sure."

"What is a Drak?" Morgana asked curiously.

"They're relatives of the dragons, but only able to be summoned by powerful magic. Though they disappeared from history about five hundred years again, they are said to reside in the Mountains of the Wind and can supposedly by summoned by a powerful user of magic," Alexander said.

"Who would want Camelot to fall?" Morgana asked, despite well knowing that a great deal of people still wished revenge on the house of Pendragon, even with Uther dead.

"There are plenty," Alexander said, lost in thought. "Teagan is one."

"Teagan?"

"Yeah. Uther killed plenty of her friends during the Purge."

"What about you? Where do you come from?"

"She rescued me from the fires of the Purge when I was just a baby. If she hadn't been there, I certainly would have been killed along with the rest of them."

Morgana could feel white-hot rage rising inside her. How _dare_ Teagan lie to Alexander his entire life; convince him that he had no family? Her fists clenched and her body stiffened. The man sitting across from her pulled himself from his reverie just in time to observe the change.

"What? I'm not sure if I can help you any more than that."

"Do you believe that Teagan saved you?"

"Yes, of course. Why wouldn't I?"

Morgana stood up and began to pace, furiously. "I can't believe she lied, I can't believe it."

"Morgana, calm down," Alexander said, jumping to his feet as well and trying to capture her arm. She pulled away. "Who lied?"

"Teagan. She told you that you had no family. How dare she?"

"But I don't have family. I've always known it." He looked confused.

"What if you did? What if you had a brother and a mother and a father and nieces and nephews but never knew about it because you blindly believed your precious Teagan?"

Alexander froze. It was clear that he had never considered this possibility. "What are you trying to say, Morgana?"

"You know how when I saw you, I said that you looked like someone I knew?"

"Yes," Alexander said carefully.

Morgana forced herself to stop pacing and look him in the eye. It was Merlin's face staring back at her, save only the curling scar. "I knew your twin brother. He was the love of my life, and the father of my children."

"You lie." Alexander shook his head.

"I don't. Do whatever you must in order to believe me, but believe me, please. I would not tell you this if I did not think you needed to know."

"Why would she lie to me? What possible reason could she have to do something like that?" Alexander challenged Morgana.

"I don't know. Possibly she wanted to keep you here, away from all the trouble in Camelot and Ealdor, keep you safe from Uther's reign of terror. But you have a mother, a father, and a niece and nephew. My children."

"What was my brother's name?" Alexander seemed interested despite himself.

"Merlin. His name was Merlin. And he looked exactly like you, except for the scar and the hair. His was cut short." She gave a weak smile. "I loved him so much."

"What happened to him? You've been speaking in the past tense."

"He was killed. By the king. For loving me. It didn't matter that I loved him back, only that he loved me when Uther did not approve. Merlin didn't even know that I was pregnant."

"Uther killed him? But why would he? What were you to him?" Alexander was looking at her differently, like she was an enigma herself.

"I was his ward, his precious ward, but he wanted to use me as a political pawn to garner support for himself and strengthen Camelot. And he expected me to go along with it, after everything he had done to me." Morgana's pent up anger was spilling out. Rage colored her voice and words, staining them violently.

"You were Uther's ward? He was your guardian?"

"Yes. But not by any choice of mine, rest assured."

"How did you feel when he died?"

"Happier than you could ever imagine."

Alexander made no immediate response to that. He sat back down and buried his head in his hands. Then he spoke again, his voice muffled. "Did Merlin have magic?"

"Yes. He was incredibly powerful; the most powerful warlock the world had ever seen. That's what he was told, at least. And he was supposed to have a destiny of greatness, but he gave it up for me. That is greatness if ever I knew it."

"How do I know you're not lying to me, instead of Teagan. I just met you; what reason would I have to believe you?"

"Do whatever you need to to assure my truthfulness. I have no reason to fear any such tests." Her confidence was evident in her voice and stance.

He looked up, his blue eyes meeting her defiant gray ones. For an instant he seemed to peer into her soul, into the deepest recesses of her mind. Morgana did not recoil, despite feeling horribly exposed. "You don't lie," he pronounced. "I would be able to tell."

"What are we going to do? About Teagan and Camelot, I mean," Morgana asked, looking away from him.

"I don't have any long term plans for Camelot, and will deal with Teagan later, but at the moment it seems that we should find out what is going on right now in the white city."


	10. Chapter 9: Betrayal

CHAPTER NINE: BETRAYAL

Morgana followed Alexander down yet another set of winding spiral stairs and through another doorway. She found herself in the room from her dreams, Alexander's workshop. The books were exactly the same, and papers stuck out at odd angles from the stacks. The high window was actually shaped like a window, not the narrow slits for archers like in the rest of the fortress.

"Sorry it's such a mess," Alexander said, rushing to clear a space on the table in the middle of the room. "I don't get around to cleaning much. I can hardly remember the last time we had guests." He laughed nervously.

"It's okay," she laughed. "You should have seen Merlin's room! It was a disaster too."

"I guess it runs in the family," he said, revealing a large mirror on the surface of the table. "Here we are."

"A mirror?" Morgana asked, moving closer to look at it.

"Yeah. Most people prefer to use water, but I think it's a little to volatile for what we want to do right now. We need a clear picture and clear sound. Mirrors are the best for that."

"I didn't know that," she said, leaning over the smooth surface. She could only see her reflection in the glass.

"Not many do. Could you stand back please? And what are the names of the people we're supposed to be spying on?" Alexander raised his hands above the table and closed his eyes, calling up the magic he would need. "The spell is a little complicated, so it might take a while. Sorry."

"Take your time. They're King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, and Gaius, if you can, but he's not as important."

He took a deep breath. "S_hd kawyth levlok babay darthrei portvquil xsed boyv. Mrstolg wias mizar gavedt. Himlo isy bavo Arthur vik Guinevere, heb likgort bin Camelot!" _The mirror flashed gold as he opened his eyes and invoked his magic. The surface began to shimmer and shine, glittering with hundreds of little lights.

"What spell was that? I don't think I've heard it before. Parts, but not all." Morgana figured that it was fine to talk to Alexander now that the spell was over and working.

"It's one that I made up myself by pulling a bunch of different spells together. It basically calls the image to the chosen surface and the sounds to our ears. There wasn't really a spell like it that I could find, so I just made this one up. There were a couple of unfortunate incidents in the beginning, including the transportation of a young villager's ears to my workshop. It was all cleared up in the end though. He's back to normal, ears attached and everything."

Morgana giggled. It seemed so ridiculous. But her amusement vanished as the image on the mirror began to solidify. It seemed that Arthur was standing in his bedroom with Gwen, talking heatedly. She strained her ears to hear and leaned closer to the mirror. Without warning, their voices materialized just as though they stood right beside her.

"What do you think Morgana was doing back here? Why would she come back if there wasn't a purpose to it?" the king raged.

"Calm down, Arthur," Gwen said, reaching for his hand.

"How can I calm down! I need her to come back, I need her to trust me! Without that there's no point to any of it. Years of planning, wasted!" He buried his face in his free hand.

"You don't know that. Maybe she'll come back."

"We need her to. Or we need to send someone to Prycrest to offer peace to her. I didn't want to scare her off, but she initiated contact. That must mean something, right?"

"Could you remind me of this plan again, Arthur?" Gwen released his hand.

Arthur began to pace, as Morgana had seen him do many times before. "We need to lull the people into a sense of peace, which is working. The Registry is allowing us to regulate the amount and kind of magical activity, while reassuring the scared people that their king is looking out for them. Rumors were growing of a magic stronghold at Prycrest, which I guessed was Morgana. She's kept herself well hidden though. Few who entered that dreaded place ever came out again, and mystery has shrouded her actions. It is more fearsome than anything we have ever faced before. An enemy with a beautiful face. Sorcery is evil, Guinevere, and it must be stamped out at some point."

"Why do you believe this?" Gwen stood up as well, and her pregnancy became more pronounced. "Can't you just let the people live?"

"Guinevere, my father was killed using a cursed blade, by one who he loved dearly. Magic corrupts those that practice it, turning them to monsters. For generations magic has fought with Camelot for control of the kingdom. They would see my line fall, my family die. Even our child." He laid a gentle hand on her stomach. "I won't risk either of you."

"Arthur, make peace with the Druids. Make your peace with magic, I beg of you." It was clear that this conversation had been had before, with the same outcome. "I don't want my child to grow up in a war-ravaged land."

"This is about the child, Guinevere." Arthur turned away from her, toward the window, where sunlight streamed through. "So once we gain contact with Morgana, we will send a party to Prycrest as a symbol of peace. But when the signal is given, they will attack. At the same moment, here in Camelot and in the outlying villages, every single person associated with magic will be killed. We know the Druid camps, mostly because they have offered peace to us as well, and our troops and emissaries there would strike. Magic would be wiped from Camelot completely. My father never had this opportunity, and so I will take revenge for him, and for Camelot."

"Arthur please, she was just upset. Uther _killed _Merlin. Imagine what you would do if someone tried to do that to me." Gwen took his arm and rested her head on his shoulder. "I feel sorry for her."

"But she killed my father, and she must pay for robbing Camelot of its king. That was high treason, and the law bends for nobody, not even her."

"Why did you hide what she did then?" Gwen challenged. "Why not just let the people know?"

"Because they would be scared. The common people would believe that magic is bad, and thus attempt to fight it wherever they see it, and that would scare the sorcerers into hiding. This way, the sorcerers believe that I am sympathtic, and are far more likely to register with the Registry. Believe me though, once I have wiped this blessed land clean of the evils of sorcery I will let the true story be known. It will become a legend, a warning against the corruption of magic."

"How can you do this, Arthur? Once you would have welcomed magic back, once you would have defended Morgana no matter what. She was so young, we all were. You need to forgive her, and free yourself from the cage of guilt and anger that you've built." Gwen's voice was soothing, like she was trying to convince him even though it had never worked before.

He turned to look at her, using one finger to lift her chin so he was looking her in the eyes. "What did she say to you to make you so adamantly for her? Why have you never told me of the days between Merlin's death and my father's? What secrets are you keeping for her?"

Morgana breathed a sigh of momentary relief. Gwen had never told Arthur of her children, so there was still a chance to keep them secret and safe. She was grateful to Gwen for remaining loyal for so many years, but her reassurance disappeared when she thought of Arthur's evil plan.

"Those words were not for your ears, Arthur," Gwen said softly. "At least not yet. Probably never. You have secrets, I have secrets. That's the way life is."

"I wish it weren't. But you will tell me someday." He kissed her gently. "But right now I need to check on Sir Bryce. Take care, love." And with that he left the room.

Alexander waved his hand over the mirror and the image disappeared in a flash of swirling pinpricks of light. There was silence for a moment before Morgana spoke, anger leaking from her heart into her voice. "How could he do that?"

"He's a king. They're power hungry and always paranoid. It's practically a job requirement," Alexander told her, but she didn't listen.

"And I believed his lies back in Camelot! Well I won't make that mistake again." She was turning cold and and cruel. He threatened her, he threatened her children, and he threatened her people, all under the guise of a good friend, a loving brother-figure.

"Morgana, we will find a way to deal with this. Nobody is going to be killed."

"Except maybe Arthur."

"Morgana listen to me. I know you're upset. This must be really hard for you, but we have to find a way to figure this out. I don't believe in violence, so maybe you can talk it out, come to some sort of agreement."

"Don't you care?" Morgana shouted, backing away from him. "How can you act like everything is going to be okay? He is _killing _your people, threatening the lives of your niece and nephew, my children? Something has to be done and I will be the one to do it if you will not."

Alexander took a step forward, but stopped at the look in her eyes. "Please. Just stay here for a while and cool off. Don't go rushing off like this. You'll regret it in the future."

She didn't back down, keeping her eyes locked on his and her mouth shut, but she thought about what he had said. The spirit in the MirrorHall had told her that her children's destinies were entwined with Arthur's child. But did she even believe it? After all, it had given her no evidence of the truth of its words; it had only known of her past with Merlin. **Do you doubt me, Morgana?** She didn't move. The voice had sounded in her head alone, she knew that. **You oughtn't to. Take Alexander's suggestion up. Stay. Think it over.**

"I'll stay," she said aloud. _And not because of you_, she continued to the voice in her head, but it was gone.

"That's great," Alexander said. "I'll put you in the room next to mine." He pushed past her and left, presumably to talk to Teagan about getting a room set up.

Morgana followed Alexander out of the room, fury and astonishment warring inside her. She was so mad at Arthur it was a wonder her vision hadn't gone red, and shocked that the MirrorHall spirit had followed her from the mountains. But this she knew. She would get revenge on Arthur and prevent his plan. His child would become a great king, and would return magic to the Kingdom of Camelot. And Cade and Emlyn would help him.

####

The room she was given was just like Alexander's, except that her bedspread was blue instead of black. A small stack of books sat on the table, and when Alexander showed her to her room, he gestured a little shyly at them. "I thought you might enjoy these."

Morgana looked slyly at the books, then at Alexander. What did he think he was doing? "Alexander," she said, turning to face him, and giving him that look. The look she knew put people off, the look that meant she knew something they didn't want her to know. "What are you doing?"

"Um nothing," he said, and his ears turned red just as Merlin's had. "Um, I just thought you um, might well, you know, want something to do while you, you know, um, stayed."

She almost laughed. He was so like Merlin sometimes. But he wasn't, she reminded herself sternly. He was not Merlin, and she certainly wasn't going to fall in love with him, or let him believe that she could have feelings for him. "Okay, but I have to be honest with you. There is nothing between us. There will never be anything between us."

"I um, I hadn't thought," he stuttered, and this time Morgana really did laugh.

"Some people tend to get the wrong idea. So I just wanted to let you know."

"Yeah, yeah, of course," he said, and left the room as fast as he could.


	11. Chapter 10: Manipulation

CHAPTER TEN: MANIPULATION

The next morning, Morgana woke to the sound of dishes landing on a wooden table. She rolled over, and caught sight of Teagan laying out breakfast for them. "Good morning, Morgana. I wanted you to join me for breakfast, but since you weren't awake, I set up in here."

"Hoping to wake me up, I bet," she grumbled, not really caring how rude she sounded.

The priestess laughed it off. "Yes, that was exactly what I hoped, in fact. Come join me."

Morgana slid herself out of bed and the moment her feet hit the floor felt more awake than she had for years. "What's to eat?"

"Eggs, bacon, toast, nothing particularly unusual. Biscuits and butter, of course." Teagan sat down in one of the chairs, and Morgana sat across from her, thankful that her hair always looked perfect when she got out of bed in the morning.

For a couple of seconds they served themselves in silence, then the older woman began to speak. "Morgana, I heard about your visions, and what you and Alexander saw in the mirror yesterday. I must say that I am so sorry about what happened with Arthur. What are you planning to do about it?"

Morgana's fists clenched on her cutlery, but she managed to keep her voice calm. Apparently she was a better actor than she thought. "I think my vision may be for a reason. Perhaps I am the one meant to summon the Draks."

Teagan didn't respond except to put a bite of eggs into her mouth, chew, and swallow. Then she spoke. "Perhaps. Visions work in unexpected ways sometimes."

Morgana hadn't taken a single bite, and found that she wasn't hungry in the least. "I don't believe that I have the power, the knowledge, or the skill for a spell of that magnitude," she said, thinking the possibility over. It had occurred to her, but never as a truly serious option. "But you know."

"Alexander asked me to promise that I wouldn't call them up. But he said nothing about teaching you to. And you must not doubt yourself. If you didn't have the power to, the Guardian would not have let you through as easily as she did."

"Who _is_ the Guardian? Where did she come from?" Morgana asked, finally putting food into her mouth. She needed to create time to think about Teagan's proposition.

"She's been there for ages beyond ages. There are stories of her beginning, but some of the versions differ from each other. The essentials pretty much stay the same though. She was a priestess of the Old Religion, and a very powerful one. She married a prince and when he became king, used his power to gain more for herself. The head priestesses couldn't stand for it, so they banded together and cursed her to guard the passage through the magical Mountains of the Wild for all eternity. She's still bound by their magic, and has not found a way to break her chains."

"That's sad," Morgana said. She could relate in some ways to the Guardian.

"Not really," Teagan said indifferently. "She's deeply evil and corrupt, and if she ever got out, I don't think that we could restrain her again. She would wreck havoc upon the world."

"Oh. I don't think I should call up the Draks. Camelot's fall is not what I want. Arthur's is." Her voice was laced with poison.

"But if Camelot fell, you could take over. Raise Arthur's child to be a kind and loving king, with a tolerance for magic. You could rebuild the entire kingdom from the ground up."

The idea caught hold in Morgana's mind. "But the city," she said hesitantly. "The city would be destroyed, the people in chaos. It would do more harm than good, I think. Maybe I should wait, find some other way to defeat Arthur's plot."

Teagan leaned forward, her breakfast forgotten, her eyes blazing with intensity and passion. "They don't need to know what you did! You could come in as the hero, but too late to save the king. It would be the perfect plot. He has hidden your deception so completely from the people, almost inviting you to take this chance."

Morgana was captured by the idea. It seemed a foolproof plan. "But the citadel," she said, recalling the falling stones from her dream. "It was being destroyed. How would we fix that type of destruction?"

Teagan laughed. "Dear girl, you use magic to do the little things, but rarely the big things. Just as the wall in Prycrest is being built with magic, so would be the citadel. It would reaffirm your position. Think about it." Fervor was lighting up her face, lending a sort of zipping energy to her body, however still she may have remained. If Morgana had looked more observantly at her, she might have been put off by the strange and slightly disturbing zeal in Teagan, but as it was, she didn't notice. The idea was intriguing, and more than a little appealing.

Morgana wavered between her two choices. On one hand there was Arthur, a dear friend of hers, and so close he was like her brother. Did she want to betray him like that? Could she? Even after he had betrayed her in like manner? Then there were her children, and not only them, but the entire magical community of Camelot. She could not risk their lives, no matter what else could happen. Finally coming to a decision, she looked up. "I will learn to call up the Draks, and I will prevent Arthur from doing this."

Teagan smiled, and her fervor was once again hidden behind a facade of calm. "That's excellent. We should start today."

Morgana could feel her soul icing over. "That sounds wonderful."

####

They worked clandestinely for two weeks. Morgana was a hard worker and a fast learner, and before long had mastered the words and inflections needed to call upon beings as great and ancient as the Draks were. Alexander didn't worry about her, and simply assumed that she was taking advantage of her proximity to someone as learned in magic as Teagan was.

They spent a lot of time apart, but would usually get together and have dinner in the evenings, talking over magic and their lives. Morgana found herself liking him, but she still struggled with his likeness to Merlin. She knew that he wasn't Merlin though, and Alexander missed much of the endearing clumsiness that had been one of Merlin's most prominent features.

By the end of the second week, Teagan pronounced Morgana ready to call up the Draks. There was, of course, the provisional talisman, needed to channel her power. "The Draks were born of the Mountains, and to the Mountains they answer. Something from there, a part of the Mountains themselves. That would be the best," the priestess had told her on the first day.

"What about this?" Morgana had crossed her room to the bureau and pulled out the stone from the MirrorHall. It'd glittered in the light filtering in through the arrow slits.

"That is perfect," Teagan had breathed, taking it gently from Morgana and holding it up. "How did you come by this? The MirrorHall is a sacred place, open to few, and fewer still can say they took something from the Spirit of the Hall."

"It was given me by the Hall," Morgana had admitted. "I couldn't get rid of it, and so I brought it. Its power was unknown to me."

Teagan had taught her to focus her power through the talisman, and project her voice to call to the creatures. She taught Morgana to open her mind and use her inner power to control them. Finally, she taught Morgana how to banish them back to their sleeping lair. "You are ready," she said, on the evening of the fourteenth day. "You are a remarkably quick learner."

"Thank you," Morgana said. Already she could feel excitement running through her veins at the prospect of revenge. She packed to leave, storing the stone safely in her bags. Where it had been an annoyance to begin with, it had become the focal point of her plan. "When I leave the valley, will I have to go through the tunnel?" she asked her teacher.

"No. You may magically move yourself into and out of the valley now. The Guardian has no power over who exits, only who enters, and once let in, you may never be locked out. It's a curious thing, to be sure, but that's the way it is."

####

On the day of departure, Morgana stood outside the castle, one hand on her horse's reins, the other gripping her bag. The oppressive weight of the magic within the Kall's Keep had lifted, and the sensation was incredibly freeing. It was not until she was outside of the walls that she realized the true price of access to such power. It had taken over her at some point, become a burden more than a blessing.

"Safe journey," Alexander said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Good luck with your talks with Arthur. He must be made to see the truth."

Teagan smirked behind his back, her knowledge lending the expression to her face. "Be safe, Morgana," she said, taking Alexander's place. "Don't forget what I have taught you." The words held more meaning than Alexander could have guessed.

"I will not forget, Teagan." With that, Morgana mounted her horse and spoke a word. The scene before her eyes dissolved, and for a moment she was trapped in a sea of whirling colors. Then they settled back into distinctive shapes. The druid camp, bustling with life, stood before her, and with another word, Morgana placed an spell on herself, the same one she had used to avoid detection at the castle. She had decided that the druids must be warned of Arthur's plan. He had said that the emissaries he had sent there would be poised to kill them at a moment's notice, and she couldn't risk them wiping out the Druids when they heard of Camelot's fall.

She made her way through the camp to the largest tent, pushing her way inside and dropping her spell. A single man stood there, as she knew he would. It had been years since she had spoken to Liam, leader of the Druids, but he was sure to remember her.

"Who's there?" he asked slowly, without turning from the maps on the table.

"It's me, Liam. Morgana."

At that, he spun around. "Morgana, my child. It has been far too long since we last spoke."

"I know, but now is not the time for pleasantries. I need to go, as soon as possible, and Arthur's men must not know that I was here."

"Whatever you need, but if I may ask, why?"

"Arthur has a plan," she began, and proceeded to tell him about what she and Alexander had overheard. "I must stop him, but if I fail, the druids must be ready. Can you do that for me?"

Liam's face twisted into a snarl. "And we thought that he was a different man than his father. He must not be allowed to do this. You must stop him, Morgana. Aware as you are of our policy about violence, you must know that we cannot offer you material help, only spiritual and moral support. "

"I appreciate it all the same, Liam."

He took her arm and looked into her eyes. "You must not do anything outlandish. It would not be a good idea to use magic in an attempt to change Arthur's mind."

_But I don't intend to change Arthur's mind_, Morgana thought. _I intend to kill him._ Thankfully, Liam did not posses the power of telepathy, and so could not pick up on those thoughts. "Don't worry, Liam. Everything will be fine." Before she could say anything else that would compromise her position, she left the tent, picked up the reins of her horse and transported herself to the woods outside Camelot.

She looked up at the white city. It was time to act.


	12. Chapter 11: Revelations

CHAPTER ELEVEN: REVELATIONS

Despite all of Teagan's urging for total silence and subterfuge, Morgana still held a slight hope that Arthur would forgive her if she helped to save his kingdom from destruction. He would never have to know that she was the cause, only that she was the salvation. It would never make up for killing his father, just as killing Uther would never make up for Merlin's death.

So she went to the council chambers and asked the guards outside the door if she could have an audience with the King.

"Why?" the taller one demanded, his eyes giving her a suspicious look through the slits in his helmet.

"Tell him that the Lady Morgana wishes to speak to him."

The guard nodded, clearly recognizing her name, then turned and opened the door. Beyond him Morgana could see Arthur and his men crowded around a table. The guard spoke quietly with Arthur, who raised his hand and spoke a sharp word. The room emptied, and Morgana was shown in. The guards closed the doors behind them.

"Morgana. Where did you go? Why did you come then leave so quickly?" Arthur looked like emotions were warring within him.

"I'm sorry, Arthur," she said, covering up her own conflicted emotions. "I was only in town for a couple of days on my way to see somebody. I hope you don't mind that I've come back."

"Not at all. I was hoping that we could speak more. Where have you been the past five years, what have you been doing?"

"Shall we sit?" she said, gesturing to the chairs. "I have much to tell you."

"Of course," Arthur replied, pulling a chair out for her. "So share," he said, sitting beside her.

"I returned to Prycrest, and set up a life there," she said truthfully. There was no point in lying if he already knew that. It would only turn him against her. "But first I must tell you something. I cannot say that I regret what I did to your father. He killed Merlin, and Merlin was my life. You cannot imagine what his death has done to me."

Arthur sighed. "I wanted revenge for so long, Morgana. In the months after his death, your death was all I wanted. But I've come to realize that you acted out of passion, and took what revenge you could."

Morgana was tempted to tell him of what she overheard, ask him what that was about, but she restrained herself. He was lying to her, boldfaced lies. "I don't know what I was thinking. It was all anger and pain."

"Morgana, you must accept my forgiveness. I don't want to hide or fight anymore. I want things to be as they were."

_They will never be as they were_ she thought angrily, but said instead "So be it."

Arthur smiled, but it was forced. Clearly he was not as good of an actor as she apparently was. "That is wonderful. When you return to Prycrest, please allow me to send some of my men with you. They will act as emissaries and will work to maintain good relationships between us."

"That would be wonderful. Perhaps I can remain in Camelot for another couple of days and get to know what has happened in my absence. How is Gwen doing?"

"She's doing fine. The child is due at some point in the next week, so we're all on our toes."

At the mention of Gwen's pregnancy, Morgana was brought back sharply to her own, and her biting desire to hold her children was felt once again. It had been a month or more since she'd last been at Prycrest, and she couldn't help but wonder what the twins were up to. She had avoided scrying them out of the knowledge that if she did she wouldn't be able to resist going to them, but decided that she ought to later that evening. She would see them soon anyway "That's wonderful. Maybe I can stay until the birth. Do you have a name chosen?"

Arthur smiled, a genuine one this time. Morgana could tell that he had not been lying when he had told her that he truly loved Gwen, and regretted more than ever that Merlin was not there to see his own children. "Rowena if it is a girl, Trevor if it is a boy."

"Wonderful choices, sire."

Arthur stood up suddenly, as though remembering that she was his enemy, not his friend. "So what's been up with you? Anything particularly exciting?"

"I have twins." She hadn't planned on saying that, but the words popped out. There was a slight possibility that it was her evil side trying to get Arthur's sympathy for her.

"What?" Arthur hadn't been expecting that. "What do you mean?"

"I was pregnant when Merlin was executed. They're his children too."

"Oh." Arthur was nonplussed. Evidently he had not expected news that big. "Twins?" he asked, attempting to recover from his surprise.

"Yes. A boy and a girl. They're five." Morgana allowed a smile to spread across her face as she thought of her children, just as Arthur had moments before. "Cade and Emlyn. I couldn't have asked for more; they truly are gifts from the gods. You are lucky that you will soon have one of your own." Deep inside, Morgana hoped that Arthur would come clean with her about his plan, but she didn't think that was likely to happen.

"That's nice," Arthur said, struggling to keep up.

Morgana could see his struggle, so continued to speak in order to give him more time to pull himself together. "Emlyn looks very like her father did, but she has my hair and eyes. Cade's eyes are exactly like Merlin's were. I wish he could see them. You and I both know what it is to grow up with only only parent. Do you remember when we were kids we would sit around and promise each other that our children would have a different experience than we did?"

"Uh, yes, I do," Arthur said. "That was a long time ago though."

Morgana laughed. "We were eleven. All we wanted to do was climb the trees in the gardens. We spent hours there." The smile slipped off her face. "Who would have known we'd come to this?" she asked nobody in particular. Silence took hold for a moment while they both thought.

"Well, it was wonderful to see you again, Morgana, but right now I have work that I need to do. Perhaps I can have my servant show you to a room and you can join Guinevere and I for dinner tonight?"

As distasteful as this idea was, Morgana was aware that she needed to keep the facade up. "Of course, Arthur. How rude it was of me to interrupt you like this!"

"Cedric!" Arthur called, and a young man hurried from a hallway. "Please show the Lady Morgana to a room near my own and ensure that she has everything she needs." The servant bowed and she followed him from the room, passing the council on her way out. Cedric led her to the room across the hall from Arthur and Gwen's.

"Do you need anything, Lady Morgana?" the man asked, but Morgana turned him away.

"Wait," she called as he opened the door. "Do you know where the queen is?"

"She's in her chambers, my lady, sleeping."

"Thank you," Morgana said, and Cedric left.

####

She whiled the afternoon away scrying various people with the water from the washbasin. First on her list were her children, and she spent the better part of an hour watching them practice magic, then checked in on Alexander. He was sitting at his workbench poring over an ancient text, his journal beside him for transcribing interesting and new spells. As she watched, Teagan entered and handed the young man an apple. He got up and paced around the room, eating it and talking.

Once again, Morgana was struck by how very like and unlike Merlin Alexander actually was. He looked just like his twin, except for the difference in hair length, but Alexander was far more graceful and elegant in his movements than Merlin had ever been, even on his best day. She was pulled from her musings by a sharp tap on the door.

"My lady, dinner is served in the King's private quarters. He requests your presence," Cedric called through the door.

"I will be right there." Morgana checked herself in the mirror. She had changed into a dark blue dress with silver accents and had hung a clear crystal from her neck. Crystalline bangles adorned her wrists and her hair swung long and wavy down her back. She looked fantastic, if she could have said so herself.

She crossed the hall and went through the opened doors. Gwen and Arthur were sitting at the table, deep in discussion. In the second or two before they noticed her, Morgana caught a couple of their words.

"Arthur, you have to look beyond yourself," Gwen was saying but cut herself off as soon as she saw Morgana. "Welcome back, Morgana! You look fabulous, as always."

"Why thank you, Gwen. You look wonderful, and happier than ever."

"Yes, Arthur and I are very happy. I guess that he told you that I'm due sometime in the next week."

"Yes, he did," Morgana said with a smile, taking her seat across from Gwen and Arthur, her back to the door. "I'm very happy for both of you."

Arthur cut in. "I want to hear more about your life, Morgana. Your twins, is that right?"

Gwen's mouth gaped open. "You told him that you were pregnant?"

Morgana smiled. "Yes. And I had twins!"

The conversation progressed much like that throughout the evening. Arthur and Gwen took turns telling Morgana about their courtship and marriage, and how they had worked to bring the kingdom back together after Uther's death. Morgana refused to reveal very much of herself, and talked mostly of Cade and Emlyn. She could tell that their mention was hard for Arthur to hear, and Gwen held on tightly to his hand whenever his fingers clenched into a fist. Servants came in and lit candles as the sun sank from the sky, serving the second course as well. It was late when Morgana finally retired to her chambers for the night.

Once alone, she pulled the little black pebble from her bags and looked at in the flickering fire of the candles. It was so small. It seemed almost insignificant, but Morgana knew that it possessed much power. The power to call up beings of inconceivable age and strength and command them to her will.

She slid the stone into her sash as another knock sounded at the door. "Come in," she called.

The door creaked open and the knocker came through. "It's strange to see you back here, Morgana," Arthur said to her back. She didn't move, instead remaining at the window, her eyes fixed on a point far away. The king continued. "For a long time I harbored a grudge against you, for taking my father from me before his time. I still can't truly forgive you."

"What of your words, then?" she asked bitterly. "You told me that you understood, and that you could forgive me because you knew the same love. Those were lies."

A deep sigh was heaved before Arthur said "Yes."

"What are you going to do to me?" she asked, keeping up the facade of not knowing his plan. _Come clean, _she thought desperately. _Just tell me of the plan, come clean with me, Arthur._

"I need to come clean about something," he said, echoing her thoughts. She took a deep breath, hoping with all her heart that he was going to tell her what she had overheard with Alexander. "I lied to you about something else as well. For years I planned the destruction of all magic in Camelot, down to the last Druid child. Under the guise of emissaries I sent soldiers to their camp, and set up the Registry so practicing sorcerers would be registered with us and we would be able to find them when the time came. I only waited for you, because you were the one sorcerer that I cared about."

Morgana turned around to look at him. He looked incredibly guilty, leaning with one hand on the table. "Why are you telling me this?" she asked, letting betrayal show through.

"When you returned the first time I had hoped to be able to set up relations with Prycrest, where I knew you were hiding. I thought that you were building a magical army to march against Camelot; there were plenty of rumors. Now, when I hear about your children, I'm torn inside." Morgana said nothing. "I can't let your children go without parents. They have already been robbed of their father and I would wish an orphan's plight on nobody, regardless of their birth."

"That is how you differ from your father, Arthur," Morgana told him. "You care for all, and he cared for none."

"I know. I know that he was neither kind nor wise, but he was my father, and I miss him for all his faults."

"What are we going to do now?" Morgana asked.

"I don't know. But I hope that we can come to some sort of agreement now that I have told you of my plan. I don't wish to fight anymore, Morgana. Please, meet me halfway here."

She thought about what he was offering. His goodwill was worth more to her than she cared to admit, and any chance for peace was a good chance. Her magical abilities would probably be up to the task of keeping an eye on him if she needed to. So Morgana abandoned her carefully hatched and violent plan with Teagan. "I will meet you halfway. But don't stab me in the back, or the results will be more disastrous than you could ever have imagined."

Arthur let out a small, uncertain laugh. "Um, okay. I guess that's settled then. I'll see you in the morning, then, Morgana."

"Good night," she said as the door clicked shut.

#####

"NO!" Teagan screamed, letting the spell dissolve and the image fade from the face of her mirror. "How could you do this, Morgana?" she asked the walls furiously. "He is a liar, and will kill you and all of our kind if he ever gets the chance. Don't do this!" Anger flooded her eyes and they turned gold. A massive maelstrom of air began to form around her, picking up the books that were stacked neatly on the floor of her own workshop and whirling them around her. "NO!" she screamed again, but her voice was almost drowned out by the howl of the winds she had created. "Arthur will fall, and you will raise the next generation of kings, Morgana," the priestess vowed. "I will not allow it to be otherwise."


	13. Chapter 12: The Battle Begins

CHAPTER TWELVE: THE BATTLE BEGINS

The next day passed in a whirl of activity. Morgana ate breakfast alone in her room, and was summoned by Arthur to the council chambers at noon. They spent three hours there trying to write an acceptable treaty between the Druids and the line of kings, hoping to present it to the Druid leader, Liam, within a fortnight. Then, in the late afternoon, she had been called to Gwen's side and had spent an enjoyable couple of hours with her. They had reminisced about old times, and Gwen had shared all the court gossip. She was so unchanged that Morgana found it a little difficult to remember that her friend was now the queen of all of Camelot Kingdom.

Dinner that night had been much the same as the night before, but Arthur was more relaxed and he joined in the conversation more often. Before she knew it, Morgana was closing the door to her room and flopping back across her bed, mentally exhausted from the day's work. She had never before known quite how boring it was to write a treaty.

But her respite was not to last. A rumble sounded from above her, and the citadel shook. She sat up, wondering what it could be. Earthquakes were not common in this part of Albion, but it was always a possibility. She poked her head out of the door and saw Arthur doing the same across the hall.

"Do you know what that was?" he asked her, looking worriedly at her.

"Nope. Do you want to go investigate?" she replied.

"You stay here," he said, and left his room, shutting the door behind him.

"Hell no," Morgana muttered, following him. She had never done what Arthur told her to do, and didn't plan on starting now. He clattered down stairs and along hallways into the courtyard, to get a better look at what was going on, Morgana close on his heels.

When she looked up at the top of the towers, she gasped. It was exactly as her dreams had shown her it would be. The dark shapes melted from the sky and ripped chunks of stone from the walls, scattering them over the courtyard and the city below. One of the Draks swooped down low and breathed flame over the city. Distant screams echoed through the night, and an orange glow took hold in the houses of the people.

"What are they?" Arthur asked nobody in particular as his knights ran to him, searching for instructions on how to react to this invasion.

"They are Draks, my lord," Morgana said bitterly.

He turned to her. "If I find that you had a hand in their appearance here, Morgana, I will kill you where you stand, children or no children."

"I swear, Arthur, I did not call them up."

"We need to build a defense. Find Sir Henry and have him take a team to the catapults. We must knock them from the sky," Arthur said, turning to his men. They scattered. "Morgana. Do you have any idea how to get rid of them, or who might have called them up?"

Morgana bit her lip. It was more than possible that Teagan had called them up, but she wasn't sure of how to send the Draks away when it had been someone else who summoned them. "I might have an idea, sire, but I need time to sort it out."

"You'd better get on it then, shouldn't you?" he asked sourly, before following his men away and leaving Morgana standing still among the fearful bustling that was filling the white-paved courtyard of the citadel. She looked into the sky, trying to count the number of beasts in the air. From what she could tell there were three of them, working as a team. She called to her mind the visions she had been given, especially the one where Teagan and Alexander fought.

"_Y__nale aldlye rezlor stian,"_ she muttered as she closed her eyes and felt the world fall away from her as she magically moved across the land. Morgana opened her eyes as soon as she felt solid and substantial again. Alexander stood across from her, bent over a book open on the table in his workshop. Totally oblivious to her presence, he began to chant. His hands began to shine and shimmer green with the power of his spell. Again, Morgana had the disconcerting déjà-vu feeling again, as she recalled this moment from her first vision. He raised his face and hands, then surprise spread over his face as he caught sight of Morgana.

Green light spread from his fingers, then flashed blindingly bright. All at once, the air smelled sharply of pine needles and fresh forest. "Morgana!" Alexander cried, bouncing around the table to her side as she blinked rapidly trying to get rid of the aftereffects of the spell.

"What was that?" she asked, rubbing her eyes and inhaling deeply.

"It was my own sort of spring cleaning. Sometimes the room gets musty, and this helps to clear the smell out without too much work." Morgana almost laughed. Who would have thought that the spell from her dream would be something as simple as a cleaning spell. Only the gravity of the situation at Camelot prevented her from giggling.

"I need your help. I think that Teagan has awoken them and unleashed them on Camelot. Please, I need your help to stop her."

Alexander shook his head, a smile gracing his lips. "You must be mistaken. She promised me that she wouldn't do anything aggressive."

Morgana leaned forward and put her hands on the table. "Please, I need you to listen to me."

The door creaked open and both of their heads whipped towards it. Teagan herself stepped through the door, one hand wrapped around something white and glowing. "Morgana. What a surprise to see you here again."

"Stop what you are doing to Camelot! Call the Draks off!"

"What makes you think that I did that? I can think of several others equally as capable."

"Because I changed my mind about it and you wanted Arthur's reign to fall. He told me of his plan and we were working out a nonviolent solution, but you couldn't deal with it."

Teagan didn't lose her composure. "That is very true, little Morgana. And you are not mistaken in all that you say."

Alexander chose to cut in. "What is going on at Camelot?" he demanded. "Are the Draks really attacking it?"

"Why don't you scry it for yourself? You are more than capable," Teagan taunted indirectly, her dark eyes fixed on Morgana.

"I want to hear it from you. You would be the only one with that type of knowledge in this portion of the world, Teagan. I also know that the Draks have long fallen from common legend, and the only place to find information on them is here, in the Kall's Keep. So either tell me or show me, Teagan."

She looked at him, then reached out with her hand and offered him what she held. It was a white crystal, glowing slightly in the dim light of the workroom. Alexander took it, and Morgana knew what was coming next. She couldn't seem to move though; it was as though her entire body had been frozen in place. Her eyes shot to Teagan, the immobilization spell given away by the golden glitter in her eye. Recognizing that, for the moment, she was getting nowhere, Morgana returned her attention to Alexander.

He took the crystal and peered deeply into the depths. His eyes widened and he ripped them from the surface in shock. "You promised!" he screamed, dropping the crystal onto his table and raising his hands again. His eyes flashed bright gold and Teagan flew across the room, her head smashing against the wall, opening a gash along her forehead. Alexander froze, while Morgana unfroze as the magic was lifted. When Teagan passed out the spell lost the power she had been feeding to it and dissipated, releasing Morgana.

"Alexander, don't!" she shouted, but it was too late. He rushed across the room and knelt down beside her, lifting her head with his hands. The priestess's eyes shot open and flashed with magic once more. Alexander stumbled back, reaching out with his hands in an attempt to right himself and regain his balance.

Morgana stepped forward and thrust her hand, palm out, at Teagan. A web of bright lilac ropes wove themselves around her. She put one hand on either side of the web and began to chant, the sound distorted by Morgana's spell. Teagan finished her spell and the entire cage began to shake and shudder, the lines melting into one another.

"_Arisan quiklet gevre!"_ Alexander called, and a white shield manifested itself in front of himself and Morgana just as the spell was finished. Where Teagan had hoped to have Morgana and Alexander to absorb the blast, she got the entirety of the rebound as it clattered off of the hastily conjured defense. It blasted her backwards once again, and with nowhere to go, she collided with the wall, collapsing to the floor again. Alexander let his shield down, but didn't move to her side again. "Come on, Morgana. We have to find out how to undo the magic she's woven."

"Okay," Morgana responded, grateful that he was going to help her. She followed his lead and began to sort through the books, looking for any that had to do with the legend of the Draks or might contain useful information.

"Here," he said, a minute later. "This stack has that information. Come here." Alexander handed her a pile of scrolls. "Look through those."

For five minutes they scanned the writings frantically, knowing that every second counted. Alexander sat on one side of the table, Morgana on the other. She could almost imagine that she were back with Merlin, researching magic and history in some attempt to learn a new spell. With a shake of her head she pulled herself from the past and focused on the page.

"Here," Alexander repeated, a large book open in front of him. Small cramped writing is opposite a vague illustration of a Drak. "This says that you just need to be near them, with a piece of the Mountains, and speak the dismissal spell, almost like you would if you were the one who had summoned them. It doesn't sound that difficult."

"That's great," Morgana breathed, standing up. "Are you sure?"

"One moment." He continued to read the page. A sudden motion caught Morgana's attention, and she saw Teagan rising from the floor like a shadow.

"Alexander!" she shouted, raising her hands as though to fight the priestess back, but Alexander beat her to it.

"Go!" he called over his shoulder. Morgana began the transportation spell. She saw Alexander's eyes flare bright gold and Teagan's responded in kind. Then the world melted and her sight turned to white and red lights and deep black shadow.


	14. Chapter 13: Thus Begins the Future

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THUS BEGINS THE FUTURE

Morgana opened her eyes and instantly regretted it. Her pupils were wholly unadjusted for the flickering orange light that hung above her, and it blinded her for a moment, sending shooting pains through her head. "Morgana?" Arthur asked, reaching out with a hand and shaking her shoulder gently. "Morgana, get up!"

"Where am I?" she asked, a little unnecessarily. It was then that the distant rumbles of the Draks destroying the city came to her ears.

"You're in Camelot."

"What happened?" she asked. Her memory of the events at the Kall's Keep were perfectly clear, but she wanted to know about the castle's situation.

"You vanished from the courtyard about two hours ago, then returned about a half an hour later, passed out and looking like you'd been chewed by a dragon. We brought you here, to the infirmary, and you've just woken up. What happened? Where did you go?" He looked suspicious, and she couldn't really blame him.

"I went to find out how to defeat the Draks," she said, sitting up. "And I succeeded."

"How can we defeat them?" Arthur asked, sitting back. She noticed that a couple of knights stood behind him, their swords out. "Why haven't you done so yet?"

She glared at him. "Why do you think?" she asked angrily, struggling to sit on the edge of the table where she lay. Teagan's magical blast hadn't missed her entirely, and she was still feeling some of the effects of the powerful spell. "I need a place to work."

Arthur opened his mouth to answer her, but was interrupted by an insistent tug on his arm. "Sire," a serving girl said, looking a little worried.

"What?" Arthur asked, turning to face her. Morgana noticed that it was the same girl who had spoken to her in the hall outside her room at her first visit to Camelot and turned her head away. The girl – Megan – had seemed very talkative, and Morgana wasn't sure if her forgetting spell had worked quite as it should have.

"It's the queen, sire. She's, um, something's happening..." The girl seemed lost for words, but Arthur had no trouble supplying them.

"Is the baby coming?" he asked her, grabbing her shoulders.

"Yes," Megan finally stammered.

"Morgana, come with me. Sir Griff, take the rest of the men and try to hold the Draks off until Morgana can banish them. You," he indicated the girl. "Get yourself someplace safe. I can find my own chambers by myself."

Megan nodded and left, the knights scattered, and Morgana followed Arthur out of the infirmary It was surprisingly empty, but she guessed that people were leaving the city rather than become trapped in the citadel, which was clearly the focus of the Drak's attack.

As they crossed the courtyard they felt rather than saw a Drak fly over them. They froze, like startled rabbits, and looked up. Wide black wings hung low over them, and a single glowing eye peered out from the inexorable dark. Then it opened its mouth and breathed fire. Without even thinking about it, Morgana conjured a shield to deflect the flames. They wreathed around the invisible barrier for a minute, then faded away, dissipating into the air. Morgana looked up at the Drak as it spread its wings and flew off again. The menacing presence was lifted and she let the shield drop.

"You … what … you just ..." Arthur stuttered, at a loss for words.

"Yes, I did just save your life," Morgana replied. "Come on, we need to get to Gwen and I need a place to work."

There was a resounding crash from above, and Morgana could see that one of the Draks had latched onto the side of the tower where the king's quarters were, and was pulling chunks of rock off the top. "GUINEVERE!" Arthur screamed, and dashed for the entrance to the castle. Morgana followed him. It was all playing out as her visions had shown her. Except that Arthur wasn't looking for anyone this time. He was following a straight path up to his chambers, still calling his wife's name. She smiled to herself. The future was not set in stone, not even her visions.

"Guinevere!" He burst through the door to his chambers, causing Gaius and Charlotte to jump about a foot into the air. "Guinevere!"

"Please, sire, sit down," Gaius said, taking Arthur's hand and moving him over the the table. "Everything is fine."

"Arthur," Morgana said from the doorway. "Do you want me to try the dismissal spell?"

"Yes," the king said, his blue eyes locked on his wife. "Right now." Morgana's eyes flicked to the bed, and the sense of déjà-vu took over her again. In the dream it had been just like that and right on cue, a shower of white rocks rained past the window from where they Drak had ripped them off the wall of the tower. "Morgana!" Arthur snapped. "Get a move on!"

"Don't you shout at me," she snapped back. "I need space to work." She looked around for a suitable surface, and found the table at which Arthur sat. "Stand up and get rid of all the chairs. I need the table."

"Why?" Arthur asked, in his usual obnoxious and overcurious manner.

"Because I need a flat surface, and the chairs are in the way," she responded irritably, grabbing one of the tall backed chairs and moving it away. Arthur followed suit and soon the table stood alone in its place. "Back up," she said to Arthur, a lot more confidently than she felt. Transportation spells had drained her power, along with the battle with Teagan and the shield against the Drak's flame. She could only hope that she would be able to hold up through the amount of energy that it would take to banish the Draks.

"What are you waiting for?" Arthur asked impatiently from where he stood. This time she didn't hold it against him. The combined stress of Gwen and the Draks must have been pushing him pretty hard.

"One moment," Morgana replied instead, reaching into her sash for the stone. It was still there, warmed by its extended exposure to her body heat. The instant her fingers touched it she felt as though all of her energy had been restored. It was like the past three days hadn't happened and she was ready to take on the world. Morgana blinked and looked at the smooth, glossy stone, seeing only her reflection.

"What is that?" Arthur asked, intrigued despite himself.

Morgana was shaken from her thoughts. "It's what's going to help me get rid of the Draks," she said shortly. "Now don't bother me." She put the stone in the center of the table and stepped back, closing her eyes and focusing her energy. The power burned within her, a bright golden ball of force, usually repressed but finally allowed to be free. It pushed against her skin, fighting her control for mastery over her body. If it was ever allowed fully out of its chains it would consume her and she would be lost to a desire for destruction.

With little struggle Morgana mastered the power and channeled it into her soul, shaping it into what she needed it to be. When she had it dominated she opened her eyes and extended her hands, concentrating on the little black rock. Her eyes glowed gold, and the stone began to glow in response, a dark glow, if such a thing could exist. Morgana began to chant quietly in the language of the Old Religion. The links that bound the rock and the witch together were strengthening, and as the final connection slid into place, she gasped in shock.

She could feel the entire mountain range as though she was a part of it. The ancient history that dwelt there was open to her, but she had no time to examine it as she wished to. Instead she began to speak the incantation that would chain her mind and soul to her body as she worked fierce, compelling magic. The type of enchantment she was casting held the ability to steal her into oblivion.

"To the fire within my soul, I call. To the air within my lungs, I call. To the blood within my veins, I call. To the earth within my flesh, I call. Hear ye and harken to my cry, for thou art the root of my being and the home to my mind and so I bid thee hold me safe 'til I return." Instantly the majority of the magic of the mountains was cut off as barriers were erected around her mind. A narrow passage was left, lined with magical sentries designed to sense any danger and leap in to rescue her. She breathed an inward sigh of relief that that had worked as it was supposed to. "To the Mountains I speak, ancient strongholds of sorcery and wizardry." That was where the English bit of the spell ended.

Morgana took another deep breath and shut her eyes. Then she began to chant in the language of the Old Religion once more. The spell was long and complicated, but she eventually got through it, speaking the final words with mild joy. Her mouth was getting dry. But this was where the spellbooks had gotten a little fuzzy. None of the books had seemed to want to describe what had happened once contact with the Draks was made. They had been very clear though, no bargains were to be struck with the beings. The only contact was to be the words of the dismissal, and in Teagan's case, the words of instruction.

Her mind's barriers were slammed with such might that she physically shook. It was only due to her fortifications that she was not annihilated completely. The sensation encompassed her, and she knew that it was the Draks, searching for a weak point in her walls. Without waiting for them to find one, she began the dismissal words. They were fairly simple, and basically told them to return to their homes and go back to sleep for another couple thousand years.

_Morgana,_ sinuous voices whispered. She didn't falter, despite her surprise at their speaking to her. _Morgana, we want to serve you. Think of all the power you could have, if we were at your command. Kingdoms would fall; cities would be razed. Listen to us. _The Draks put images into her head. The great castles of Albion fell, and the gold seal of the Pendragons fluttered above them. The Draks stood before her, bowing their mighty shadowy heads as she commanded them to the next battle. They never lost. Army after army fell to their indestructible power. Then it was Morgana herself, seated on a throne, a crown on her head.

It was that image that pulled Morgana's mind from the dreams. She could not say that they weren't tempting, but the last reminded her of what had been shown in the MirrorHall, when she had sat on the throne of Camelot, her eyes hard and unfeeling. It was terrifying, and she had vowed never to be that power hungry. With renewed authority, she finished the dismissal spell, and the presences receded swiftly, returning to their mountain home and darkened lair.

Silence fell over the city, eerie after the catastrophe that had preceded it.

"You did it," Arthur said in astonishment. Morgana severed the ties with the stone, let down her barriers and opened her eyes.

"No need to sound so surprised," she said, mock offense in her voice.

"Thank you, Morgana," the king said. "Now please leave. Gaius needs to be able to concentrate on my wife."

Morgana nodded, picked up the stone, and left his chambers, closing the door on her way out. Her fingers clenched around the black rock, and a somewhat familiar voice spoke in her head. **I told you that you held power. Well done.**__Morgana didn't bother trying to respond. She knew that the spirit would offer no information that it did not wish to give up, and so she just took the compliment at face value. She proceeded down into the city and walked the streets, using her magic whenever necessary to put out fires and help people. When she finally returned to the citadel night was falling and she was both hungry and exhausted. Life was returning to the city and many of the people were hard at work repairing their damaged lives. The servants who had hidden in the bowels of the castle were emerging and the kitchen was bustling once again.

Surprisingly, Arthur was already sitting at one of the rough wooden tables waiting to be served dinner. Morgana took a seat across from him. "How's Gwen?" she asked, a little fearful for the answer.

"It's going to be a long labor," Arthur replied, twiddling his thumbs and looking nervous. "Gaius said she'd be fine though."

"That's good." Morgana decided to tell him of the state of the city. When she had finished her report, Arthur was looking at her in astonishment.

"That's amazing, Morgana. That you would do so much to help the people even after I had plotted against you."

She smiled, a genuine face-splitting smile. "I want to help. We need to come to some sort of an arrangement, and the only way to do that is if we work together."

The king smiled back as two plates of food were set before them. "You should come live in Camelot for a little bit. Show the people that we are allies of magic, and that magic can be used for good as well as evil. Bring your twins... Cade and Emlyn right? I would like to meet them."

"Of course," she said as he began to eat. Her eyes fixed on his face and optimism bloomed bright and new within her. There was hope for the future after all.


	15. Epilogue

EPILOGUE

It was almost six months before Morgana could find time to return to the Kall's Keep. When she did, she didn't transport herself directly into it as she had before. She was to uncertain what she might find, and she didn't want to step into a trap that Teagan may have set for her should she have survived the battle with Alexander.

The outside of the Keep looked just as it had the last time; silent as the grave and ominously black. Once again, as she stepped through the entryway, Morgana could feel the magic of the place. This time though, it didn't overwhelm her. Weeks of exposure to the force had built up a resistance within her, and she was able to compartmentalize herself from the power.

Slowly, she explored the Keep. It didn't look much different than before. Mostly full of dusty rooms that never seemed to be used. She made her way up to Alexander's workshop. The door was closed, but unlocked, and she pushed it open with a palm. The room was neater than she'd ever seen it. The stacks of books that had lined the walls were gone, replaced instead by bookshelves upon which were lined the spines of books like little soldiers. Scrolls were piled in labeled boxes and the table was clear, except for the single scroll open across it and the man sitting in the chair next to it.

"Alexander!" she cried, running across the room and throwing her arms around him.

"Morgana," he responded, somewhat less enthusiastically returning her hug.

"Tell me what happened!" she said, sitting down in the chair opposite him. "What happened to Teagan? How did you get out? And why is your room so neat?"

"I decided to reorganize," he said, avoiding the more pertinent answers. "How are you? What's happening in Camelot?"

"The Draks were stopped. Arthur and I came to an agreement. My children and I are going to live there with him for half the year and live at Prycrest the rest of the time. Magic is returning more swiftly now that I'm openly practicing, and he's abolished the Registry. Gwen had her child. It's a boy, Trevor. But you didn't answer my question."

"I defeated her. She's gone, so you don't need to worry about that anymore." And no matter what she said, he wouldn't give her more information. They talked for hours, mostly Morgana telling him of the news from Camelot and Prycrest.

"I should probably get going," Morgana said, judging it to be close to dinnertime by the amount of light filtering in the window. "It was nice to see you again," she told him hoping that he would respond in kind.

"You too," he replied.

"You should come visit," Morgana said, a little hurt at his distance. "It would be good for Cade and Emlyn to get to know you."

Alexander looked up at her from where he sat, but she saw no companionship in his eyes. They were cold and impersonal. "Maybe I will."

Morgana returned to Camelot and had dinner with her children. They were going on about their magic lessons that day, but she had trouble concentrating on what they were telling her. Then she heard the voice in her head again. **Don't think of him. Your children need you. Their destiny is great, and you must focus on them. There's nothing you can do for him anymore.** Morgana wrenched herself from thoughts of Alexander and listened to her children. That was the last time Teagan crossed her mind for a long time.

She followed Gaius's instructions and found Balinor. He entered the lives of his grandchildren with happiness, and helped to raise them. Often Morgana would find herself talking with him about Merlin, and came to relish the memories for their happy feelings rather than spurn them for the pain of not having Merlin anymore. She gained a new appreciation for Cade who, once Balinor died, would inherit his powers and become the last Dragonlord. So while he studied magic, he was also tutored in the ways of the Dragons and told of the responsibilities he would posses. Years passed without her notice.

One night, as she lay in her bed, she dreamed of Merlin. He was back in her arms, his lips on hers. "They are beautiful," he told her, speaking of their children. "I love you." When she awoke, she knew that she would see him again someday, though in this life or the next she was still unsure.

**If you haven't reviewed yet, please do! I really would like to know what you think of it.**


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